U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress, died Wednesday after suffering an aneurysm while driving her car. She was 58.

The congresswoman died at 6:12 p.m. after suffering a brain hemorrhage that caused an aneurysm that burst and left her with limited brain function, spokeswoman Eileen Sheil said.

“Throughout the course of the day and into this evening, Congresswoman Tubbs Jones’ medical condition declined,” Sheil said in a statement from the congresswoman’s family and the Cleveland Clinic, where she was hospitalized.

The liberal Democrat had been driving erratically through Cleveland Heights Tuesday night; her vehicle crossing from the northbound lanes across the southbound lanes, according to a statement from police.

An officer pulled a cruiser across the roadway to warn oncoming traffic. The officer reached her vehicle and found Tubbs Jones in medical distress, the statement said.

Tubbs Jones, elected in 1998, was one of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s most vocal supporters during the primaries and was to be a superdelegate at next week’s Democratic National Convention in Denver.

She represented the heavily Democratic 11th District and chaired the ethics committee in the House. She was the first black woman to serve on the powerful Ways and Means Committee, where she opposed President Bush’s tax cuts and his efforts to create personal accounts within Social Security.