Byrd was admitted to a Washington area hospital a week ago, suffering from what was believed to be heat exhaustion and severe dehydration as a result of the extreme temperatures in the nation's capital. By Sunday afternoon, other conditions developed, and Byrd's health took a turn for the worse.

Byrd died at 3 a.m. Monday morning at Inova Fairfax hospital in Falls Church, Virginia.

Born Nov. 20, 1917, in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, Byrd was orphaned at the age of 1 when his mother died. He was raised by his aunt and uncle in a rural community near the coalfields of West Virginia.

The life lessons he learned while growing up in a coal-mining family helped him shape his political career; he ultimately achieved the distinction of being a three-term representative and a nine-term senator.

"The people of West Virginia have lost a true champion, the United States Senate has lost a venerable institution and America has lost a voice of principle and reason with the passing of Robert C. Byrd," President Obama said in a statement today. "He was as much a part of the Senate as the marble busts that line its chamber and its corridors."

Vice President Joe Biden remembered Byrd as a "tough, compassionate, and outspoken leader."

"We shall not see his like again," Biden said today at an event in Louisville, Kentucky. "And the Senate is a lesser place for his going."

Famed for his informed, often lengthy speeches on the floor of the Senate, Byrd's admirers praised his mastery of governmental procedure, historical knowledge and candor -- often calling him the "conscience of the Senate."

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