JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Former U.S. Rep. Tillie Fowler, who became prominent on defense issues during her four terms in Congress, died Wednesday, two days after suffering a brain hemorrhage. She was 62.

Fowler, who was known as the “Steel Magnolia” for her quiet tenacity in Congress, died at a hospital, said Tom Alexander, a family spokesman.

Fowler was elected to the House of Representatives in 1992, campaigning on an “eight is enough” term-limits pledge. She declined to seek re-election in 2000 though at the time she was vice chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, placing her fifth in the GOP hierarchy.

After leaving Congress in January 2001, she was mentioned as a possible secretary of the Navy in the Bush administration, but instead joined the national law firm of Holland & Knight.

Since 2003, Fowler had been chairwoman of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, which advises Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. She was also the chairwoman of the committee that investigated alleged sexual assaults at the U.S. Air Force Academy.