JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Former longtime Missouri state Sen. Harold Caskey has died following complications related to Parkinson’s disease.

Kay Caskey said her husband died Thursday at Shawnee Mission Medical Center in Kansas. He was 77.

She says he was taken there earlier this week from their Butler home after choking on food and losing consciousness. Kay Caskey says her husband had difficulty swallowing because of Parkinson’s disease.

Caskey first won election to the Missouri Senate in 1976 and served for 28 years before being forced out by term limits. The Democrat previously was the Bates County prosecutor

Caskey played a key role in Missouri’s school funding laws and in a measure allowing people to carry concealed guns.

He was vice chairman of the Missouri Capitol Commission, which oversees the building’s preservation projects.