A friend of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords said she was "always willing to talk to her constituents," and that her returning to Tucson for a town hall meeting in the days after Congress had convened was typical.
Giffords, 40, was one of 18 people shot, six fatally, at a Tucson, Arizona, grocery store Saturday at what she called "My 1st Congress on Your Corner," in a tweet shortly before she was shot.
"She was an incredible public servant," said Sylvia Lee, president of Pima County Community College in Tucson. "She was a moderate Democrat who was willing to talk to both sides.
Giffords is married to NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, a Navy captain who is scheduled to fly the April space shuttle mission to the international space station. Lee said that Giffords has no children but was stepmother to Kelly's two children.
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CNN's Dana Bash had a conversation with Giffords on Friday at the Capitol and Giffords told her that she had taken a trip to Rome with her family over the holidays and had been able to attend Midnight Mass in the Vatican.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, called Giffords a "wonderful, perky, woman."
Nadler said that she was, "very popular in not a terribly popular Democratic district.
Giffords narrowly beat Tea Party-backed Republican Jesse Kelly in November, 49-47 percent.
Lee said that Giffords and Rep. Raul Grijalva, a fellow Arizona Democrat, had received threats in the past.
Grijalva confirmed the threats to CNN affiliate KVOA, "But for her to say, I will not go out there and do my job and be with constituents because of this -- no, never.
"She is fearless," he said.
