Former Rep. Gloria Fox of Roxbury, who left office in early 2017 as the longest-serving female member of the House and the branch’s only African-American woman, died Monday, state Sen. Liz Miranda confirmed on social media. Fox was 82 years old.

Fox first ran for a seat in the House in 1984, waging what she described in a 2009 interview as a 14-day sticker campaign for the seat held by Doris Bunte, the first African-American woman elected to the state Legislature. A single mother deeply involved in community organizing and political campaigns, Fox came out on top of a four-way Democratic primary and then a special election for the seat in 1985, and went on to be elected 15 more times, according to state election results archives. She chose not to seek reelection in 2016.

“Rep. Gloria Fox served Roxbury for 30 years in the Massachusetts Legislature. There would be no me, and many other[s] without her leading the way,” Miranda, of Roxbury, wrote in a Facebook post Monday night. “A staunch supporter for prison reform and all things focused on the people of her district , she inspired me to focus on the Criminal Legal systems in Massachusetts in my time in the State House.”

When Fox gave her final speech to the House in late 2016, she recalled her efforts to fight poverty in the 1960s and how she has worked since then on community development initiatives in her Roxbury neighborhood.

“It’s not going to end with this day. I do intend to be involved in many, many ways in community and human service and development,” Fox said. Alluding to the first transition to President-elect Donald Trump, she added, “We’re going to have a lot of activity for these next four years and so I intend to be on the forefront of that, maybe not as a legislator but definitely as a concerned citizen with a lot of history of involvement.”

She also told her colleagues in late 2016 that she wanted to take some time in retirement to continue work on a book about her life, which she said a filmmaking relative planned to turn into a movie.

“I won’t tell too much about that,” she said. “You can pay the money and see it when it’s done.”