Kay Granger, the first Republican woman from Texas to be elected to Congress, who went on to run the powerful House Appropriations Committee, has died. She was 83.

Her death was confirmed by Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday evening.

“Throughout her career, she broke barriers for women in public service,” Mr. Johnson wrote on social media, adding, “She was a dear friend who will be greatly missed.”

Ms. Granger left Washington in 2024, during her final year in the House, and moved into an independent living facility in Fort Worth — an arrangement that her office did not disclose for months.

When a conservative website broke the news in December 2024, Ms. Granger’s son Brandon told The Dallas Morning News that she had been experiencing “dementia issues.” In a statement at the time, Ms. Granger said she had been navigating “unforeseen health challenges that have progressed since September and made travel to D.C. difficult.”

The news caused a stir in Washington, coming as several older members of Congress also faced health issues and the Republican majority in the House was razor-thin.

Ms. Granger was a local Republican official in Fort Worth and the city’s first female mayor before she was elected to Congress in 1996, when she won the seat once held by former Speaker Jim Wright, a Democrat. She served for nearly three decades and became the dean of the Texas delegation, the largest state delegation in the Republican conference.