INDIANAPOLIS -- U.S. Rep. Julia Carson, a Democrat who had represented Indianapolis in Congress since 1997, died Saturday morning after a battle with lung cancer, her office said Saturday morning.

Her staff said the cause of death wasn't immediately available, though Carson, 69, had been under hospice care at her home. She revealed that she had terminal lung cancer on Nov. 24, and had been on leave from Congress since September, when she was hospitalized in Indianapolis for what her staff said was a severe leg infection.

"Although her specific cause of death was not available ... Ms. Carson passed away peacefully in her sleep with her friends close by," her office said in a news release.

The death of Carson, the first black and first woman to represent Indianapolis in Congress, came less than a month after she announced she wouldn't seek re-election to Congress in 2008.

It will be up to Gov. Mitch Daniels to call a special election to complete the last year of Carson's term. It will likely be at least 60 days before that election could be held, according to Brad King, co-director of the Indiana Election Division.

The special election will be the first for a House seat in Indiana since 1989, when Democrat Jill Long Thompson was elected in the Fort Wayne area to replace Republican Dan Coats. He had been appointed to the U.S. Senate following Dan Quayle's election as vice president.

Carson's staff said her congressional offices will come under the supervision of the House's clerk until her successor is sworn in. Her staff will continue to assist constituents with casework and other duties until the successor takes office, her office said.

Carson Praised For Treatment Of Others, Public Service

Carson was never one to turn away from a challenge in her congressional career. She was elected to her 7th District seat in November 1996 but had been involved in politics since the 1960s.

Her smile, statement-making scarves and hats and unforgettable sound bites drew chuckles and derision, sometimes depending upon which side of the political fence one sits. Regardless of political preference, it was impossible to ignore the presence of Julia Carson in Hoosier politics.

Carson made her first run for Congress in 1996 after serving in the Indiana House, Indiana Senate and as Center Township trustee in Marion County.

Carson was former Congressman Andy Jacobs' legislative assistant in 1965. When he announced his retirement in 1996, Jacobs urged Carson to run for his seat and endorsed her without hesitation.

On Saturday, Jacobs praised Carson's public service.

"She didn't brag. ... She quietly worked for the public, and the public greatly benefited from her," he said.

Perhaps it was the humanity and down-to-earth demeanor that made Carson the Teflon woman of Washington.

No matter what her opponents and critics threw at her, nothing stuck, and she had the respect of Democrats and Republicans.

"She was on Air Force One, and I went back to have a visit with her," President George W. Bush said in 2005. "If you've never had a visit with Julia, she's got a lot of wisdom. She's not afraid to speak her mind. She kind of reminds me of my mother."

Going against Bush, Carson was opposed to the war in Iraq. She also advocated people taking pride in themselves and in their community.

"I think the more we amplify the positive side of a community, the positive side of African Americans, perhaps it will somehow penetrate to the criminal element of our city," Carson said.

On Saturday, Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson said people loved and respected Carson because she treated them well.

"She treated everybody equally," Peterson said.

Carson's health troubles didn't keep her constituents from voting for her, even though a heart attack kept her from being sworn in on time when she was first elected to Congress.

She was too ill to travel and missed votes in Washington because of that in 2004. Not long after her 2004 illness, Carson responded to health questions.

"The doctor checked my heart. It's great. They checked my blood pressure -- great. Diabetes -- where it ought to be. Asthma -- where it ought to be, and I'm just fine," Carson said at the time.

In September, she was hospitalized in Indianapolis for more than a week for what her office said was an infection near where a leg vein was removed in January 1997 when she underwent double heart bypass surgery -- weeks after she was first elected to the U.S. House.

She never returned to Washington after the September hospitalization. Her office said she went to a rehabilitation facility after being released from the hospital. In November, she announced she had terminal cancer, saying doctors made the cancer diagnosis after treating the leg ailment.

She also indicated in November that she had been previously diagnosed with cancer, but that it had gone into remission.

"It had gone into remission years before, but it was back with a terminal vengeance," Carson said in the November statement, which did not disclose the date of her initial diagnosis.

Family Working On Funeral Arrangements

Carson's family said it has accepted Gov. Mitch Daniels' offer to have her lie in repose at the Statehouse. That probably will be Friday, her family said; details still were being settled.

Her family said her funeral would be Dec. 22, but details were not immediately available.