CHICAGO — Longtime Illinois U.S. Rep. Phil Crane — an anti-tax crusader and ardent advocate of limited government even before those views became a hallmark of the GOP under President Ronald Reagan — has died of lung cancer at age 84.

The Chicago-born Crane died Saturday night at his daughter’s Jefferson, Maryland, home surrounded by the children he once delighted in sending poems to, said Eric Elk, a congressional aide to Crane through much of the 1990s.

The one-time history professor-turned politician represented Chicago’s far northwest suburbs for 35 years and was the longest-serving House Republican when he was defeated in 2004 .