Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker used to tease her former boss, U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, that the movie “The Devil Wears Prada” was about the congresswoman.
Like Meryl Streep’s character, Miranda Priestly, Granger was hard to work for and wanted to be excellent at all times, said Parker, who was the congresswoman’s campaign manager and district director. Granger was incredibly caring, smart and focused, but tough, Parker said.
“I used to joke with Kay, ‘They finally made a movie about you,’ and she’d just [be] like, ‘Hahaha, so funny, so funny,’” Parker recalled Monday.
Granger both loved and hated the bit, Parker said.
“She kept a really high standard for the people that worked in her office, mostly because — in my opinion — she had come up in politics when it was hard, especially as a woman in Fort Worth and in Texas and then in Washington,” Parker said. “She felt like she had very little room for error and held herself to a very high standard.”
Granger died Sunday at the age of 83, after a trailblazing career that was marked by a flurry of firsts.
In 1991, having worked as a teacher and opening an insurance agency, Granger became the first woman to serve as Fort Worth mayor. Before that she served on the zoning commission and on the Fort Worth City Council.
Granger won her 12th Congressional District seat in 1996 to become the first Republican woman to represent Texas in the U.S. House.
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Representative Kay Granger talks on the phone with a supporter as she watches the returns for the Republican primary election at Winslow’s Wine Cafe, Tuesday, March 2, 2010. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Rodger Mallison) RODGER MALLISON STAR-TELEGRAM/RODGER MALLISON
She would go on to lead the Appropriations Committee, a powerful position where she had sway over defense projects — an issue vital to the economy of North Texas, with Lockheed Martin, Bell and the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth. Granger was the first Republican woman to hold the leadership role.
Those who knew Granger remember her as a champion of Fort Worth and a hard-working, no-nonsense, consensus builder in Washington who wasn’t afraid to work across the aisle.
“She was truly an old-style public servant, and I admired … that about her,” said former Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price.
A champion for Fort Worth from the halls of Washington
Former U.S. Rep. Joe Barton met with Granger at the Fort Worth Club around the time she was first mulling a congressional bid. As he remembers it, she was being courted by both parties to run for a seat that had long been held by Democrats.
He pushed her to run as a Republican.
“The line that I used that impacted her was, ‘If you run as a Democrat, I’m sure you’ll win, but you’re going to be a part of a party that is in decline and losing authority,’” Barton said. “‘On the other hand, if you run as a Republican, you’re going to be part of a party that is expanding and growing.’ ”
Granger would rise to be one of the most powerful Republicans in Washington, but those who work with her note that Fort Worth was always front of mind for the congresswoman.
In addition to working to support the area’s defense industry, she aimed to help the region’s infrastructure, including as a proponent of the Central City Flood Control Project to reroute the Trinity River. The project is often referred to as the Panther Island project.
Officials detonate a blast on Henderson Street at the official groundbreaking of construction of the Panther Island Bridges being built on Henderson Street, North Main Street and White Settlement in Fort Worth, TX, Monday, Nov. 10, 2014. The ceremony included remarks by Congresswoman Kay Granger, Texas Department of Transportation Commissioner Victor Vandergriff and Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price. Max Faulkner Star-Telegram
Granger was someone House leaders listened to, but she never lost her “mayor’s touch,” even as she rose in the congressional ranks, said former U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, whose tenure representing a Denton County-based district overlapped with Granger.
“She never forgot her people in Fort Worth, and that was always one of the things that I tried to mirror, not that I was anything near her stature on the national stage,” Burgess said.
Former Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley recalls her work to preserve the USS Fort Worth, a Navy combat ship commissioned in 2012.
Granger was a bulldog when it came to the things she cared about, and Fort Worth and Texas topped her list, he said.
“She was adamant that she was going to keep that ship, and that ship was going to be protected as long as she was there,” Whitley said.
The ship was decommissioned this year.
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Congresswoman Kay Granger, left, gets a tour of the bridge of the USS Fort Worth from commanders Randy Blankenship, right, and Warren Cupps in Galveston in 2012. RON T. ENNIS Star-Telegram/Ron T. Ennis
Granger was never “wishy-washy” and always knew what she wanted, Barton said.
“She was not a grandstand cowboy,” he said. “She was a work horse.”
He would regularly catch flights home from Washington to North Texas with her and other local congressional members when they served together. They’d talk about current events, their families and on occasion the Cowboys, Rangers, Fort Worth Cats and TCU Horned Frogs.
Burgess and U.S. Rep. Craig Goldman, who succeeded Granger in Congress, shared stories of Granger helping them early on in their House careers.
Burgess recalls Granger meeting with him in her Capitol Hill office before he was first elected to represent the 26th District. There was a cat there too, he said, though Burgess is unsure if it lived there – only that Granger called it a “House” cat.
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Congresswoman Kay Granger discusses the USS Fort Worth after it’s commissioning ceremony in 2012 in Galveston. RON T. ENNIS Star-Telegram/Ron T. Ennis
Granger was forthcoming and offered information that he needed to serve his constituents. She was one of the first representatives to embrace him heading to Washington, Burgess said.
“I had never served before,” Burgess said. “I did not know, really, how difficult it was to be a representative and Kay clued me in on a lot of those things.”
Granger never phoned it in, he said.
“She always did her work, and she was always prepared,” Burgess said.
Goldman knew Granger as his City Council member before he got to know her as a congressional representative while he served in the Texas House.
He said the top question you get as a freshman in Congress is “Who did you replace?” When he told them he was taking over Granger’s district, representatives’ eyes would light up as they reminded him of the big shoes he has to fill, Goldman said.
“I mean, not just some of the members, all of the members,” he said. “She was so well-respected. I’ve heard time and time again, ‘She was tough, but she was fair.’ ”
U.S. Rep. Kay Granger highlights literacy at an event at Lena Pope’s Chapel Hill Academy public charter school on Thursday, November 10, 2016. Kay reads to a kindergarten class. Joyce Marshall jlmarshall@star-telegram.com
Granger was also incredibly funny, caring, empathetic and attentive to people, said Parker, who recalls Granger once sending flowers to her hotel room to thank her for her work. Parker said she worked for the congresswoman during a time of major life milestones, including law school and starting a family.
“She had raised kids as a single mom, and so as a result, she had a certain level of empathy and attention to people’s lives that I think was unique, certainly in politics,” Parker said.
Granger was a talented artist who started painting while serving in the House, she said.
“It was her therapy, probably, for her hard work and time and attention to her job,” Parker said.
Kay Granger’s career of firsts
Despite rubbing elbows at various functions over the years, Price said it wasn’t until she ran for Tarrant County tax assessor-collector in 2000 that she finally got to know Granger. That was the first time Price spoke to Granger about what it meant to be a woman in government and Republican politics.
“She really was about the service, and I could always see that in her,” Price said. “And she was tough, you know, she was driven. The first time I met her, I remember thinking, ‘This is why this woman was the first woman mayor, because she’s tough, fair. Caring, but tough.’ And in a man’s world, 20, 30 years ago, 40 years ago, in Kay’s case that’s really what it took.”
From then on, the two were close friends.
Rather than being the typical politician of today’s world, Price said, Granger was much more of an old-style public servant. Granger used her time in office to serve others first and foremost.
When Granger began in politics as a member of the city zoning commission in 1981, there weren’t many opportunities for women, Price said. Granger moved on to City Council in 1989 and became mayor in 1991.
After working in the insurance business, where the only other women were predominantly secretaries, being outnumbered by men was nothing new for Granger.
Parker told a story from Granger’s tenure as mayor, when she attended an event with former Gov. Ann Richards to welcome Queen Elizabeth II to Fort Worth.
“She shows up to the event, and there’s tons of pomp and circumstance, press and all the cameras,” Parker said. “And essentially she shows up in a black pantsuit or skirt suit, and Ann Richards leans over to her to say ‘You don’t want to be a wallflower. You’ve always got to wear a color. Someone’s got to notice who you are.’”
Photos from Granger’s career after that point show her wardrobe as a kaleidoscope of colors — from a yellow blazer to pink skirt suits, with every shade in between and outside.
Long-time sports anchor Scott Murray and Rep. Kay Granger mingle during The First Fete of Fall, benefiting Big Brothers Big Sisters, at Neiman Marcus in Ridgmar Mall in 2013. Special/Brandon Wade Brandon Wade Star-Telegram
When she set her mind to something, Price said, it was going to happen.
“She was probably more direct than a lot of the women that I knew, but she got it done,” Price said. “And I, you have to admire that. You have to admire her perseverance when she went to Congress.”
Granger decided she wanted to join the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee because of its importance to Fort Worth and, upon arriving in Washington, she became the first woman on the panel. She then was the first woman to chair it.
Rep. Kay Granger in front of the F-35 in 2015 as Lockheed Martin presented the Norwegian Armed Forces with the first fighter purchased by the country. Paul Moseley Star-Telegram
Parker, who joined Granger’s staff while on Capitol Hill, said as a result of her firsts, Granger never took her elected seats for granted.
“She has a great story she would tell about when she first got to Congress,” Parker relayed. “They kind of wanted her on the education committee because she was a teacher, and she just had to stand her ground [about] what she wanted and why she thought that was important as a member of Congress from Fort Worth, Texas. And she was fierce in that.”
During her tenure, Granger helped drive several defense achievements, including the commissioning of the USS Fort Worth in 2012.
“The positions that Kay was in, mayor, congresswoman, took a lot of time, took her away from her family, away from the community that she loved,” Price said. “But she did it because she cared so deeply about this community.”
Price added: “And I want them to remember, she did this for Fort Worth and Tarrant County and the part of Parker County she represented. It was never for Kay.”
This story was originally published August 4, 2026 at 5:32 AM.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Rachel Royster is a news and government reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, specifically focused on Tarrant County. She joined the newsroom after interning at the Austin American-Statesman, the Waco Tribune-Herald and Capital Community News in DC. A Houston native and Baylor grad, Rachel enjoys traveling, reading and being outside. She welcomes any and all news tips to her email.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Eleanor (Elly) Dearman is a Texas politics and government reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She’s based in Austin, covering the Legislature and its impact on North Texas. She grew up in Denton and has been a reporter for more than six years.
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