Overview

• The Kilpatrick family announced her death at age 80, noting funeral arrangements will be shared later.
• Elected to the U.S. House in 1996, she served from 1997 to 2011 after nine terms in the Michigan Legislature, where she became the first Black woman on the state appropriations committee.
• In Congress she sat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee and chaired the Congressional Black Caucus from 2007 to 2009.
• Coverage credits her with steering significant federal dollars to Detroit—CBS cites more than $70 million—while the family highlights projects such as the Detroit Riverwalk and the Woodward Avenue streetcar.
• She lost the 2010 Democratic primary to Hansen Clarke following sustained attention to legal cases involving her son, former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, and is survived by two children and eight grandchildren.