DALLAS (AP) — Kay Granger, the first Republican woman from Texas to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and who served for nearly three decades, died Sunday at the age of 83, her son J.D. Granger said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a post on X that throughout her career, Granger "broke barriers for women in public service.” He added that she “was a dear friend who will be greatly missed.”
Granger, who began her career as a high school teacher and a businesswoman, accomplished many firsts as a politician. She was the first woman elected mayor of Fort Worth, Texas, and the first Republican woman to chair one of the most powerful committees in Congress, the House Appropriations Committee.
First elected to the House in 1996, she did not seek reelection in 2024 and experienced worsening “health challenges” in her final months in Congress, according to a statement her office released in December 2024. Granger, who didn’t cast a vote in Washington after July 2024, didn’t specify or elaborate on those health challenges but said in the statement that frequent travel to Washington had become “both difficult and unpredictable" since early September of that year.
Granger graduated from Texas Wesleyan University in 1965 and considered a career in fashion design but followed her mother into teaching. She worked in the Birdville school district for nine years, teaching English literature and journalism, according to a profile compiled for the publication “Women in Congress, 1917-2006.”
A divorce would lead to a career change. To earn more money, Granger worked from home selling insurance. Her mother, Alliene Mullendore, who moved in with Granger after a stroke, helped keep an eye on the kids. Granger eventually built a successful insurance business that she managed for more than two decades.
“I was a high school teacher with three children, a 2-year and 6-month-old twins, and my husband left," Granger told The Hill in a 2008 profile. “It's the reason I talk so much to working mothers ... you just fight your way through the day.”
Granger got her political start serving on Fort Worth's zoning commission and then won office to the city council. She went on to win election as the city's first female mayor, serving from 1991 to 1995.
Granger’s “Code: Blue” programs included citizen patrol initiatives that halved the rampant crime rate and partnerships with the private sector that drew major businesses to the city. Her resuscitation of Fort Worth’s flagging economic fortunes drew national attention.
In 1996, she was recruited by both parties to run for the House under their banner, and she won as a Republican.
Upon entering Congress, she was named to an advisory board that consulted then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich. She also received seats on three committees: Budget, House Oversight, and Transportation and Infrastructure. She resigned those assignments as part of accepting a seat on the Appropriations Committee.
On the committee, she focused on defense spending, including championing the production of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in Fort Worth.
When Republicans took charge of the House in 2023, Granger became the committee's chair, where she sought to enact steeper non-defense spending cuts than the top-line numbers House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden agreed to as part of avoiding an economically disastrous government default.
FILE - Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, looks on as the House votes for a new speaker, at the Capitol in Washington, on Oct. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - House Appropriations Committee Chair Kay Granger, R-Texas, and her panel begin work on fiscal 2024 spending bills, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, June 14, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
SURABAYA, Indonesia (AP) — An Indonesian ferry carrying 271 people caught fire in waters off the main island of Java on Sunday, leaving at least five people dead and dozens missing as rescuers and passing vessels evacuated hundreds from the burning ship, officials said.
The Mutiara Sentosa 2 ferry was traveling from Indonesia's second-largest city of Surabaya in East Java to the city of Makassar in South Sulawesi, with 232 passengers, 39 crew members and 181 vehicles, mostly trucks, and an excavator, when the fire broke out between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. in waters off Sumenep regency, according to Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency, or Basarnas.
The ferry operator, PT Atosim Lampung Pelayaran, reported the incident to the Surabaya search and rescue office about an hour later, Basarnas said in a statement. It said the company received information from the ferry's captain that the vessel was on fire near the northern tip of Madura island, but contact was later lost.
By 9:45 a.m., authorities determined the ferry was about 19 nautical miles north of Buruan Sapudi island after communicating with the nearby cargo vessel Meratus Project 3, which was unable to approach the burning vessel closely because it was carrying a flammable load.
Footage released by the National Search and Rescue Agency showed thick black smoke billowing from one side of the ferry and spreading across much of the ship while videos circulating on social media and messaging groups showed terrified passengers, mostly wearing life jackets, could be seen clustered on the deck and upper sections of the vessel awaiting rescue, some jumping into the sea as orange flames and black smoke billowed from the burning vessel.
The ferry was reported to be nearly engulfed by flames, with passengers gathered on the bridge and bow. A tugboat and another passing vessel moved in and began evacuating passengers shortly before 10 a.m., the statement said.
By Sunday evening, several nearby vessels managed to rescue 227 passengers and crew and recovered five bodies. At least 39 people remained unaccounted for.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known and remained under investigation.
Ahmad Abdul Karim, one of the survivors, said the fire appeared to have started from a truck on the lower vehicle deck.
“Someone came up from the lower deck and told us there was a fire. When we went down to check, two vehicles were already burning," Karim said, "Fanned by the wind, the flames spread extremely quickly. In less than 30 minutes, everyone had been instructed to move to the bow of the ferry.”
Search and rescue teams dispatched a rescue vessel from Surabaya, although officials estimated it would take about six hours to reach the scene. A rigid inflatable boat from the Sumenep rescue post was sent toward the location but later returned to shore because of rough seas and high waves. The Indonesian Navy also deployed a warship to assist.
The 160 meters (525 feet) long and 25 meters (82 feet) wide ferry was built in Japan in 1992 and operated on the Osaka-Shinmoji route as the “Ferry Osaka” before being sold to Indonesia in 2015. It serves the Surabaya-Makassar route, a voyage that typically takes around 40 hours and is primarily used by domestic travelers and cargo transport between Java and Sulawesi.
Indonesia is an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands where ferries are a common method of travel. Disasters occur regularly, with weak safety enforcement often blamed.
Karmini reported from Jakarta. Associated Press writer Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.
A member of Indonesia's rescue agency points a map showing the location where passenger ferry Mutiara Sentosa 2 caught fire off Madura Island, at the rescue operation's command center in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP photo/Trisnadi)
Smoke billows from passenger ship Mutiara Santosa 2 after it caught fire in the waters off Madura Island, Indonesia, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP Photo)
Survivors of a ferry fire arrive at Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Trisnadi)
A survivor of a ferry fire receives medical attention at Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Trisnadi)
Rescuers carry the body of a victim of a ferry fire upon arrival at Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Trisnadi)
Rescuers assist a survivors of a ferry fire upon arrival at Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Trisnadi)
Survivors of a ferry fire arrive at Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Trisnadi)
In this photo made from video released by the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026, smoke billows from passenger ship Mutiara Santosa 2 after it caught fire in the waters off Madura Island, Indonesia. (BASARNAS via AP)
In this photo made from video released by the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026, smoke billows from passenger ship Mutiara Santosa 2 after it caught fire in the waters off Madura Island, Indonesia. (BASARNAS via AP)
