Former Rep. Mary Rose Oakar, the first Arab American woman in Congress and a political casualty of the 1992 House banking scandal, died on Sept. 13 in Lakewood, Ohio. She was 85.

A Democrat from Cleveland’s West Side, Oakar was first elected to the House in 1976 and served eight terms, winning easily each time before losing to Republican Martin R. Hoke in 1992. That year, she faced a redrawn district and was swept into the banking scandal, having written more than 200 bounced checks.

In the House, Oakar championed women’s rights and economic equality, including pay equity bills. She managed to restore a Medicare mammogram benefit after it was repealed, partly by convincing then-Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski to decry the repeal as loudly as she did, according to her 1992 Almanac of American Politics profile. She also introduced an ultimately successful bill to create the $1 coin featuring pioneering suffragist Susan B. Anthony.

Oakar served on what was then known as the House Banking Committee, where in 1979 she sought to expand the Economic Development Agency to include women as a disadvantaged group. A devout Catholic, she also opposed federal funding for abortion, preferring that the government instead encourage family planning and provide counseling to pregnant women rather than paying for abortions.

Before coming to Congress, Oakar, whose parents were of Lebanese and Syrian descent, spent a year training to be an actress at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. She spent time as a telephone operator and later became a faculty member at Cuyahoga Community College from 1968 to 1975. From 1973 to 1976, she was a member of the Cleveland City Council.

In 1976, Oakar beat 11 others in a Democratic primary to succeed Rep. James V. Stanton, who left what was then Ohio’s 20th District for an unsuccessful Senate run. During her campaign, she handed out pens decorated with roses and campaigned in a convertible covered with roses, highlighting the fact that she was the only woman in the race, according to a biography posted by Baldwin Wallace University.

She easily won the general election and, at 36, was one of the few women elected to Congress under the age of 40. She was also Ohio’s first Democratic congresswoman.

Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, the dean of Ohio’s congressional delegation and the longest-serving woman in Congress, remembered her former colleague as a “highly gifted, indefatigable extraordinary woman of deep faith.”

“Mary Rose worked hard to promote an economy that serves everyone, across Northern Ohio, and throughout our nation,” Kaptur said in a statement.

In the House, Oakar was a member of Democratic leadership, succeeding Geraldine Ferraro, the party’s 1984 vice presidential nominee, as caucus secretary, a position that has since been renamed caucus vice chair. She ran for caucus chair after the 1988 elections but lost to Pennsylvania Rep. William H. Gray III.

After she left Congress, Oakar was indicted on two federal misdemeanor charges related to illegal campaign contributions, pleaded guilty and received two years of probation, community service and fines.

She continued with public service in her post-congressional career.

In 1995, President Bill Clinton appointed her to the advisory board for the White House Conference on Aging. She successfully ran for the Ohio House in 2000 and served one term, losing a bid for Cleveland mayor in between. She was president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee from 2003 to 2010.

In 2012, at the age of 72, she won a seat on the Ohio State Board of Education, where she served until 2016.

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