Former Rep. Kay Granger of Texas, a longtime Fort Worth leader who became the first Republican woman elected to Congress from the state and later the first Republican woman to chair the House Appropriations Committee, died Sunday at her home in Fort Worth. She was 83.
Her son J.D. Granger confirmed her death. The cause was Alzheimer’s disease, he told The New York Times. Granger had earlier described “unforeseen health challenges” that made travel to Washington difficult in the last months of her career. Family members later said dementia-related issues kept her away from the Capitol for much of 2024. She left Washington that year, moved into a senior living facility in Fort Worth, and did not cast a vote after July 2024. She retired when her 14th term ended in January 2025.
Tributes came quickly from Republican leaders and Texas officials. House Speaker Mike Johnson called her a close friend and praised a lifetime of service that ran from teaching and small business through local government to nearly three decades in Congress.
“Kay Granger devoted her life to serving her Fort Worth, Texas community — as a teacher and businesswoman, on the Fort Worth Zoning Commission and City Council, as Mayor, and in Congress for nearly three decades, where she also served as Chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee,” Johnson wrote on X. “Throughout her career, she broke barriers for women in public service.”
Sen. Ted Cruz said she had “lived a life of historic firsts” and spent nearly three decades championing North Texas, the armed forces, and a strong national defense. Rep. Craig Goldman, who succeeded her in the 12th District, called her a legend whose work remade the community she represented. Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker remembered her as a mentor. House Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat, said Granger served “with integrity, determination, and a profound sense of duty.”
From Greenville to Fort Worth City Hall
Norvell Kay Mullendore was born Jan. 18, 1943, in Greenville, Texas, and grew up in Fort Worth. She graduated from Eastern Hills High School and earned a degree from Texas Wesleyan University in 1965. She taught high school English and journalism, then built an insurance business. After her marriage to John Granger III ended in 1978, she raised three children as a single mother while moving into public life.
She served on the Fort Worth Zoning Commission from 1981 to 1989, then on the City Council. In 1991 she became the first woman elected mayor of Fort Worth, holding the office until 1995. As mayor she pushed economic development and public safety, including efforts to cut crime and manage the city’s growth.
A defense hawk on Appropriations
Granger won the 12th Congressional District in 1996 — a seat once held by former Democratic Speaker Jim Wright — and took office in January 1997. She served 14 terms. Colleagues came to know her as a conservative focused on fiscal policy, constituent work, and national security.
She spent 25 years on House Appropriations and became the first woman to chair its Defense Subcommittee. That perch made her a leading advocate for Fort Worth’s defense industry, including Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II program and work at Bell Helicopter. When Republicans recaptured the House after the 2022 elections, she became Appropriations chair in January 2023. She stepped down from the chairmanship in April 2024.
In 2023 she announced she would not seek another term, saying she wanted to finish the one she was serving. Her final year was marked by long absences and, later, public confirmation of her declining health — a chapter that also fed a wider debate about aging members of Congress.
Granger is survived by three children and five grandchildren. Officials in Fort Worth and Washington described her less as a celebrity politician than as a local official who kept rising: first woman mayor of a major Texas city, first Republican congresswoman from Texas, first Republican woman to run the House’s spending committee. That sequence, more than any single bill, is the record her colleagues cited on Sunday.
