Hillary Clinton mourns the loss of Tubbs Jones

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U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones

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Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton

CLEVELAND (AP) — Days after the unexpected death of U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton told a newspaper that she is grieving the loss of her close friend.

The former Democratic presidential candidate said she is still having a hard time coping with the loss of her campaign’s national co-chairwoman.

“I’m just so sorry that she’s not going to be around with me as we grow old,” Clinton told The Plain Dealer.

Tubbs Jones, a Democrat who was the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress, died Wednesday evening after suffering a brain hemorrhage caused by a ruptured aneurysm. She was 58.

“When I told her I was thinking about running for president, she said she wanted to be there for me — and, boy, was she ever,” Clinton said. “We traveled together. She traveled on her own for me. She did interviews. She bucked up the staff and volunteers. She danced on the stage when we won. She was ... a real force of nature in our campaign.”

As Clinton’s race for the Democratic nomination with Sen. Barack Obama grew tighter, Tubbs Jones encountered criticism from blacks who felt that she ought to support Obama’s historic bid. Clinton said she offered Tubbs Jones a chance to back out.

“I knew there were people who were threatening her and refusing to talk to her,” Clinton said. “I would say to her, ‘You know, you don’t have to be out there for me.’” But Clinton said Tubbs Jones refused to buckle under.

“‘When I’m in, I’m in,’” Clinton recalled Tubbs Jones telling her.

“She was so motivated to do what she believed,” Clinton added. “I saw that up close and personal during my campaign.”

Tubbs Jones was a five-term representative in Ohio’s heavily Democratic 11th District. She was the first black woman to serve as a common pleas court judge in Ohio and the first black woman to serve on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

Clinton said she was having a difficult time coping with the loss of not only a political ally but a close friend.

“She was a real girlfriend,” the former first lady said. Tubbs Jones could be counted on “to ask where you got your shoes or if you were on a diet and if it was working” in case she wanted to try it out.

The two met during the early 1990s during Bill Clinton’s first presidential run.

They saw more of each other after Tubbs Jones arrived in Congress and Clinton was the first lady. But their friendship blossomed when Hillary Clinton was elected to the Senate in 2000.

After Tubbs Jones’ husband, Mervyn Sr., died, Clinton recalled how hard Tubbs Jones worked to maintain a close relationship with her son.

“She leaves so much for us to try to live up to,” Clinton said.

Tubbs Jones stood beside Clinton during her often contentious presidential nomination battle. But that didn’t mean they always agreed.

“She wasn’t afraid to criticize me. When she thought I deserved it, she got that kind of prosecutor look and she just said, ‘I don’t think that was the right thing to do,’” said Clinton, who laughed at the memory.

The women were close in age — Clinton is 60 — and both are former lawyers.