US leaders honor Reid at Las Vegas memorial service
National leaders and hundreds of mourners poured into a downtown Las Vegas theater Saturday to pay tribute to former U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, a political giant and the most prominent elected leader in Nevada’s history.
President Joe Biden said Reid’s ascension from the hardscrabble beginnings in Searchlight to his role in the U.S. Senate is proof that ordinary Americans can accomplish anything if given the chance.
“What a gift Harry Reid was to this state and to this nation, and to so many of us, individually,” Biden said from The Smith Center.
Reid, the longest-serving U.S. senator in state history, died Dec. 28 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 82.
Biden noted Reid’s role in stopping the storage of nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain, creating Nevada’s first and only national park and securing the votes for the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.
“He never gave up,” Biden said.
Dignitaries including Vice President Kamala Harris, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York also flew to Nevada to pay respects to Reid.
Obama delivers eulogy
Former President Barack Obama delivered the eulogy, crediting his former colleague with helping to pass key legislation such as Wall Street reform and a federal stimulus package in the throes of the Great Recession.
Reid held the reins of the U.S. Senate throughout Obama’s tenure in the White House, helping to secure the 44th president’s landmark piece of legislation, the Affordable Care Act, even when the legislating proved difficult.
“Harry refused to give up,” Obama said.
Obama said Reid knew the U.S. Senate better than just about anyone else and was capable of getting things done. But more importantly, Obama said, Reid understood why the work on the Affordable Care Act mattered. He had firsthand knowledge of the struggles of growing up without access to health care.
“When Harry put everything he had into the passing of the (Affordable Care Act), he didn’t do it to burnish his own legacy,” Obama said. “He did it for the people back home and families like his who needed someone looking out for them when nobody else was.”
Reid was always himself, even admitting to not being the most charismatic or politically correct speaker, Obama said.
“But Harry knew who he was,” Obama said. “And he had the distinct advantage of not really caring what other people thought of him.”
Obama said Reid did not like to be the center of attention, joking that the late senator “would not have wanted to sit through this thing.”
“He was uncomfortable when people said too many nice things about him,” Obama said. “But as he looks down on us today, Harry is going to have to suck it up, because few people have done more for this state and this country than this driven, brilliant, sometimes irascible, deeply good man from Searchlight, Nevada.”
The former president said Reid’s political career was marked by dogged determination. He had a fighting spirit and enjoyed proving doubters wrong, but he didn’t adhere to rigid ideology.
He was also a pragmatic lawmaker, Obama said, one willing to cut a deal when he disagreed with someone, even if he didn’t particularly like them.
“In a battle between perfection and progress, Harry always chose progress,” Obama said.
Reid prioritized family
Nevada leaders past and present from across the political spectrum began filing into the venue Saturday morning for what would be a 2½-hour service.
The audience was illuminated by the soft glow of the lighting in the 2,050-seat theater.
A trio’s stringed instruments swelled as photos of Reid throughout his life cycled on a large screen above the stage.
Silence fell about the crowd as a military honor guard carried Reid’s flag-shrouded casket to a bier positioned between two bouquets of white flowers on the floor in front of centerstage.
Only the commands of the honor guard, steps of the soldiers and shutter of a camera could be heard during the procession.
The memorial included performances by Brandon Flowers of The Killers and singer-songwriter Carole King. Flowers closed out the services with an a cappella version of Nevada’s state song, “Home Means Nevada.”
Ella Joy Reid, one of the former senator’s 19 grandchildren, led the invocation. Another granddaughter, Savannah Jaynes Reid, led the benediction.
M. Russell Ballard, president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said Reid was a man of faith in word and in deed.
“Harry cared for the least of these, those who were less fortunate, hungry, sick, for those who had any number of challenges” said Ballard, a longtime spiritual adviser to Reid.
Reid’s children Lana Reid Barringer, Key, Josh, Leif and Rory Reid remembered their father as someone who always made time for family.
“I’m eternally grateful for the example that he set for me and for my children,” Josh Reid said.
Reid’s children told stories of the letters their father would write to them, the games he would play when they were young, the times he would take them to Baskin-Robbins or Luv-It Frozen Custard, a Las Vegas institution, on summer nights and let them get whatever they wanted.
“He was and is our hero,” Leif Reid said.
Rory Reid said discussion of Reid or his family should begin and end with the love he had for his wife of 62 years, Landra Reid. The two met as teenagers and provided their children an example of how a partnership should work, he said.
“She was the center of his universe,” Rory Reid said.
Landra Reid sat in the center of the front row of the audience. She did not speak during the service.
‘One of a kind’
Pelosi, who led the House during the first two years of Obama’s presidency, called Reid a legendary statesman and a “towering titan of public service.” He was a fearless, strategic, knowledgeable legislator who never forgot his mission of fighting for working families, Pelosi said.
“God truly blessed America with the life and legacy of Harry Reid,” she said.
Schumer called his predecessor a dear friend and mentor who had an honest character. Reid was a tough fighter, but was also compassionate and never forgot where he came from.
“He was one of a kind,” Schumer said.
Reid will be honored in Washington, D.C., becoming the first Nevadan to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. He will then be flown back to Nevada for interment in Searchlight.
A small group of protesters waving Trump signs and a Confederate battle flag shouted at people attending the Reid memorial. When the service let out, a few were standing by a parking garage complaining about the COVID-19 vaccine.
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Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter.
