LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Judge Andree Layton Roaf, the first black woman to serve on the Arkansas Supreme Court, has died 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 her 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 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 most recent position in 2007 as head of the federal Office of Desegregation Monitoring, responsible for overseeing compliance with long-standing desegregation plans for the North Little Rock and Pulaski County Special school districts.

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.