Friends remember U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee as hard worker, 'Wonder Woman'

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The late Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee is being remembered by those who knew her after losing her battle with pancreatic cancer on Friday.

Jackson-Lee represented Texas' 18th District for the last 29 years and was running for her 16th term.

"To most people, it was Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, to me, it is auntie -- Auntie Sheila," Lawrence Bell, who's known Jackson-Lee his entire life, said.

Jackson-Lee and his mother were in the same sorority, and he spent much of his childhood campaigning for her re-election to Congress.

"If I could mesh together Dr. X and Magneto and Superman and Batman, Wonder Woman all into one, you get Sheila," Bell said.

Maxine Lane-Seals met Jackson-Lee in 1980, before she'd been elected to anything.

"She is the hardest working politician that I've ever seen," Lane-Seals said.

SEE ALSO: Remembering US Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee: Community leaders reacts to congresswoman's passing

Jackson-Lee's first three bids for judge failed before she was appointed a municipal judge in 1987.

In 1989, she won an at-large position on Houston City Council, becoming the first African-American woman elected to citywide office.

University of Houston political science professor Nancy Sims advised Jackson-Lee during that council race.

"She hired me 'cause guys wouldn't work for her, and there weren't a lot of options," Sims said.

Sims said Jackson-Lee took up the mantle for women's rights after getting elected to Congress in 1994.

She spearheaded the charge to renew the Violence Against Women Act.

She also pushed for legislation to prosecute police misconduct and sponsored the bill that made Juneteenth a federal holiday.

"She's a person that just have to be out there, have to be working," Lane-Seals said.

Jackson-Lee's friends say that was evidence by her frequent appearances at funerals and church services around her district.

"Sheila, you could be assured if you called her, she was gonna be there," Lane-Seals said.

Seals, who served on the North Forest ISD school board since the 1980s, said she is most grateful for Jackson-Lee's efforts to save the school district, even though it was ultimately dissolved in 2013.

"Sheila was the only - I want to say that loud - only elected official that stood tall and stood with this community," Lane-Seals said.

Jackson-Lee was 74.

For news updates, follow Luke Jones on Facebook, X and Instagram.