Former five-term Virginia Senator John Warner passes away at 94

John William Warner III, attorney and politician who served as the United States Secretary of the Navy from 1972 to 1974 and a five-term Republican U.S. Senator from Virginia from 1979 to 2009 has passed away on Tuesday at the age of 94.

Warner’s marriage to English-American actress Elizabeth Taylor from 1976 to 1982 gave him a potent dash of star power and had drawn huge crowds when he was elected to the Senate in 1978.

Even though Warner devoted most of his career to military matters, he was a centrist Republican and was hugely popular among Virginia voters and consecutively served five Senate terms. After 30 years, he was succeeded in 2008 by Democrat Mark Warner. Warner was a veteran of World War II and Korea and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and as Navy secretary.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lauded Warner as “a great patriot…a leader unafraid to speak the truth but always committed to finding common ground and consensus.”

Susan A. Magill, his long-term cheif of staff said in a statement on Wednesday that Warner died of heart failure at home in Alexandria, Virginia, with his wife and daughter at his side.