Post by Admin on Jan 2, 2015 11:11:59 GMT -4
ALBANY, N.Y. -- Mario Cuomo, the three-term New York governor and father of the state's current governor, died of heart failure Thursday at the age of 82.
Cuomo is among the most iconic New York governors of the 20th century, known for his liberal views, soaring speeches and deeply held beliefs that made him among the most prominent Democrats of his time. His death came the same day as his son, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was inaugurated for a second term.
Cuomo died at his home in Manhattan with his family at his side, according to the governor's office.
"He couldn't be here physically today, my father," Andrew Cuomo said Thursday during his Manhattan inaugural address, which came just hours before his father's death. "But my father is in this room. He is in the heart and mind of every person who is here. He is here and his inspiration and his legacy and his experience is what has brought this state to this point."
President Obama remembered Cuomo as a politician who had a quintessentially American story.
"An Italian Catholic kid from Queens, born to immigrant parents, Mario paired his faith in God and faith in America to live a life of public service - and we are all better for it," Obama said in a statement. "He rose to be chief executive of the state he loved, a determined champion of progressive values, and an unflinching voice for tolerance, inclusiveness, fairness, dignity, and opportunity."
Mario Cuomo decided against a run for president in 1991, famously leaving an airplane on the tarmac in Albany that was destined for New Hampshire. His decision opened the door for Bill Clinton to win the party's nomination and the presidency a year later.
A father of five, Cuomo took great pride in his humble upbringing. He was the son of Italian immigrants who worked in his father's grocery store in Queens before becoming a politically active attorney and ascending to the governorship in 1983.
"I learned about our kind of democracy from my father. And I learned about our obligation to each other from him and from my mother," Cuomo said in his 1984 Democratic National Convention keynote address -- a speech that propelled him onto the national stage.
Rest In Peace From MaxwellStyle Group
