KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A funeral home official says former Missouri Congresswoman Karen McCarthy has died at a nursing home in northeast Kansas.
McCarthy was 63 and had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
McGilley Midtown Chapel in Kansas City will be handling the arrangements. Manager Robert Kalkofen says she died Tuesday in Johnson County, Kan.
McCarthy represented the Kansas City area in Congress for more than a decade before retiring in 2005.
McCarthy was elected to the Missouri House in 1976 after working as a high school teacher.
She was known for helping win congressional approval for a tax to support Kansas City area cultural activities.