President Barack Obama shakes hands with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid after delivering the keynote address during the National Clean Energy Summit 8.0 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center Monday, Aug. 24, 2015.
Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2021 | 8:40 p.m.
Former U.S. Sen. Harry Reid’s funeral next month will include a eulogy from former President Barack Obama, the Sun has learned.
The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Jan. 8 at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Las Vegas, where the native Nevadan Reid will be remembered for his many contributions to the state and nation.
Reid died peacefully surrounded by family on Tuesday after a four-year battle with pancreatic cancer, said Landra Reid, his wife of 62 years in a statement. He was 82.
“We are so proud of the legacy he leaves behind both on the national stage and his beloved Nevada,” she said.
Reid emerged from humble beginnings in Searchlight to a three-decade career in Congress, including serving as the Senate majority leader for eight years and helping Obama pass his signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act.
Obama said Reid was “more generous to me than I had any right to expect” and credited him with making possible his presidency and accomplishments.
“As different as we are, I think we both saw something of ourselves in each other — a couple of outsiders who had defied the odds and knew how to take a punch and cared about the little guy. And you know what, we made for a pretty good team,” Obama wrote in a letter to Reid in his final days.
Obama shared the letter on Twitter after Reid died.
Other scheduled speakers for the funeral aren’t immediately known. Many have shared their condolences and memories of Reid after learning of his passing.
