March 16 (UPI) -- Longtime U.S. Rep Nita Lowey, 87, of New York,. has died from metastatic breast cancer, her family announced Sunday. "She sponsored life-changing legislation in the fields of education, medical research and international relations," a statement released by her family said. Lowey, a strident Democrat who served Westchester County for 32 years, was first elected to the House in 1988 at age 51, and was well-known by her supporters and critics for supporting liberal causes and helping craft legislation to advance them in .Washington, She was regarded as a "master legislator" by Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who said Lowey was at once gracious and tenacious in her pursuit of legislation to help her constituents. She was appointed to the House Appropriations Committee in 1993 and became the ranking Democrat in 2013. She was the first woman chosen to lead the committee in 2019 when the Democrats won power, the same year Lowey announced her retirement from Congress. Her Republican colleagues warned other House members not to be disarmed by her kindly demeanor. "She can make you smile while you're bleeding," said Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill. "We call that the perfumed ice pick." In 1999, Lowey voted against a measure that would have made it a crime for an adult to take a minor across state lines to seek an abortion to avoid the girl having to seek parental permission for the procedure in her home state. "This bill could throw grandmothers in jail for helping their granddaughters," she said then. Lowey also opposed measures by the George W. Bush and Donald Trump administrations that would have banned federal funding to organizations worldwide that provided abortions. She said the policies were a "cruel and unprecedented attack on the world's most vulnerable women." Lowey also worked to secure funding for hurricane recovery victims, to strengthen drunk driving laws and bolster relations between the United States and Israel. She was married to her husband, Stephen Lowey, for for 64 years. The couple had three children.