DES MOINES, Iowa — The wife of a former Democratic Iowa congressman has died just eight days after her husband.

A spokesman for the family says Darlene “Dody” Boswell died early Saturday morning at a Des Moines hospital following a prolonged illness. She was 82.

Her husband, former Rep. Leonard Boswell, died Aug. 18 following complications from a rare form of cancer.

Dody Boswell was born in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, and attended Graceland College in Lamoni, Iowa, where she met Leonard Boswell. They married in 1955 and had three children. She taught elementary school for 37 years, mostly in Lamoni.