Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey has died at the age of 87. Lowey’s family says in a statement that she died Saturday after battling metastatic breast cancer.

Nita M. Lowey, a veteran legislator from New York who served 16 terms until her retirement at the end of the 116th Congress, died on Saturday. The cause was breast cancer, her family announced. She was 87.

“With great sadness, we announce that former Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey died peacefully on March 15 at the age of 87, surrounded by her loving husband, children, and grandchildren, in her home in Harrison, NY,” her family announced in the statement.