Biography

05/03/1928 - 05/19/1996

Roxanne H. Jones (D3) Philadelphia County 1985-1996

Early Life: 

Roxanne H. Jones, born, May 3, 1928, South Carolina, daughter of Gilford and Mary Beatrice Bruton Harper; education. Howard High School, Wilmington, Delaware; married, James H. Jones, (deceased), two daughters Wanda and Patricia; elected, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1984-1996; died, in office, May 19, 1996, heart, Saint Joseph’s Hospital, city of Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania; no information available on interment.

Professional titles; business ownership; board memberships; local government; club memberships:

Chair, Southwark section of  Philadelphia Public Housing Chapter; Philadelphia Welfare Rights Organization, 1967-68; founder, Philadelphia Citizens in Action; board member, Pennsylvania Minority Business Development Authority; Congress of Black Women, Philadelphia Chapter; Allegheny Women Foundation; Long Term Care Council; Pennsylvania. Trauma Systems Foundation; Children’s Health Advisory Council; co-chair, Coalition of Concerned Citizens; member, Pennsylvania. Legislative Black Caucus; member, Martin Luther King Center for Social Change; National Political Congress of Black Women.

Pennsylvania Politics:

Elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania State Senate, 3^rd district, Philadelphia County, 1985-1996; minority chair, Public Health and Welfare Committee, member, Aging and Youth, Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure and Urban Affairs and Housing Committees; first black woman elected to the Senate of Pennsylvania, 1984, second woman to serve in the Pennsylvania State Senate, since Flora M. Vare, 1928.

Cited: 

McQuown, L. (Ed.). (1996). The Pennsylvania manual, Volume 112. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Biographical Sketches of Senators pages 3-17 and 3-43.