LITTLE ROCK – Judge Andree Layton Roaf, the first black woman to serve on the Arkansas Supreme Court, died Wednesday after losing consciousness in her Little Rock office. She was 68.

Pulaski County Coroner Garland Camper says Roaf died Wednesday at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. The cause of death wasn’t immediately known.

Then-Gov. Jim Guy Tucker appointed Roaf to the Arkansas Supreme Court in January 1995 to serve out a vacancy. A year later, she was appointed to the state appeals court by then-Gov. Mike Huckabee to serve on the court when it was expanded from six to 12 judges. She was elected to the court in 2000 and served until 2006.

U.S. District Judge Bill Wilson Jr. appointed Roaf to her current position in 2007 as head of the federal Office of Desegregation Monitoring, responsible for overseeing the North Little Rock and Pulaski County Special school districts’ compliance with their long-standing school desegregation plans.

“While Judge Roaf’s career broke barriers, it also repeatedly displayed her skills as a jurist,” Gov. Mike Beebe said in a statement. “She will be remembered as a pioneer who served honorably in the Arkansas judiciary.”

“She was the smartest person that I ever served on the court with or knew serving on the court,” former Appeals Court Judge Wendell Griffen said Wednesday.

“Even when you agreed with Andree, she would continue to talk about the case. We would be ready to move on, but she had more to say, she had more cases she read, she had more insights to share,” Griffen said. “There was always something more she could bring to the table.”

Roaf had given up a career in science to pursue law, a field she said allowed her more time to care for her children. She worked as a biologist for the National Center for Toxicological Research and the federal Food and Drug Administration before entering law school at age 34. She earned her law degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1978.

“To end up in this place is almost more than I can imagine,” Roaf said when she was sworn in to the high court in 1995. “How proud I am to be an Arkansan.”

She is survived by her husband, Clifton Roaf, and four adult children, including retired NFL player Willie Roaf. Camper said funeral arrangements have not been completed.