Las Vegas City Wire

The late U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid who died at age 82 was honored at the Capitol where his body lay in state.

"Kathy and I are sending all our love to the Capitol today as we mourn and honor Senator Reid," Nevada Gov. SteveSisolak tweeted Jan. 12.

The Associated Press described Reid as "a hardscrabble Democrat who rose from poverty in a dusty Nevada mining town to the most powerful position in the U.S. Senate."

Reid died at age 82 after a four-year battle with pancreatic cancer, the story said.

He served longer in Congress than any other Nevadan, AP reported. He was majority leader under two presidents and helped with economic recovery during the Great Recession and with passage of President Barack Obama's health care law, the story said.

President Joe Biden described Reid as "great  American" who "looked at the challenges of the world and believed it was within our capacity to do good, to do right."

Biden, Obama and others who knew Reid recalled that he would abruptly hang up during telephone calls to avoid lengthy goodbyes, AP reported.

Born in the "desolate mining town" of Searchlight, Nevada, Reid was the son of a rock miner who later committed suicide, the story said. His mother was a laundress for bordellos.

Searchlight had no churches and Reid's family were not religious, but a picture of President Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the Reid home and inspired the senator's political career, AP reported.