LAS VEGAS -- Two American presidents joined with other Democratic leaders from around the country Saturday in remembering the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who rose from childhood poverty in Nevada to become one of the nation's most powerful elected officials.
The turnout at Reid's Las Vegas memorial service reflected his impact on some of the most important legislation of the 21st century. President Joe Biden escorted Reid's widow, Landra, to her seat at the start of the service, before an honor guard carried the flag-draped casket to the well of a hushed auditorium.
Reid died Dec. 28 at his home in Henderson, Nev., of complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 82 years old.
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"Let there be no doubt: Harry Reid will be considered one of the greatest Senate majority leaders in history," Biden said. Speakers credited Reid's work on strengthening health care, overhauling Wall Street and helping the economy recover from the 2008 recession.
Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, who described Reid as a "truly honest and original character," spoke during the memorial.
Former President Barack Obama, who credits Reid for his rise to the White House, delivered the eulogy.
When Reid helped secure passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at the start of Obama's first term, "he didn't do it to burnish his own legacy," Obama said. When Reid was a boy, Obama explained, his family was so poor that "he didn't even know" what health care was. When a tooth went bad, his father pulled it himself. A brother let a broken leg heal on its own.
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Working in Washington, Reid "did it for the people back home and families like his, who needed somebody looking out for them, when nobody else did. Harry got things done," Obama said.
"The thing about Harry, He never gave up. He never gave up. He never gave up on anybody who cared about him," said Biden, who served for two decades with Reid in the Senate and worked with him for eight years while Biden was Obama's vice president.
"If Harry said he was going to do something, he did it," Biden added. "You could bank on it."
A running joke throughout the service involved "Harry Reiding" -- Reid's habit of abruptly ending telephone conversations without saying goodbye.
"I have to tell you, every time I hear a dial tone, I think of Harry," Biden told mourners.
"I probably got hung up on the most by Harry Reid, two or three times a day for 12 years," Pelosi said.
"Sometimes I even called him back and said, 'Harry, I was singing your praises,'" Pelosi said. To which Reid replied that "'I don't want to hear it,'" she said, before she'd hear the phone click dead again.
Reid's son Leif said that was "part of the narrative" of his father's life, a gesture that showed how much he valued preserving time for family.
"When he hung up on you, maybe so quickly, it isn't as much about him being brusque as it is about him being devoted to my mom," Leif Reid said.
Harry Reid served for 34 years in Washington.
In his younger years, Reid hitchhiked 40 miles to high school and was an amateur boxer before he was elected to the Nevada state Assembly at 28. He had graduated from Utah State University and worked nights as a U.S. Capitol Police officer while attending George Washington University Law School in Washington.
In 1970, at age 30, he was elected as the state's lieutenant governor.
Reid was elected to the U.S. House in 1982 and to the Senate in 1986.
Reid's body will be flown to Washington to lie in state at the Capitol rotunda, and a ceremony will be held there Wednesday.
Gallery: Memorial for former Sen. Harry Reid
