Former Senator Edward Brooke Dies At 95

Former U.S. Sen. Edward W. Brooke, a liberal Republican who became the first black in U.S.history to win popular election to the Senate, died Saturday. He was 95.

Brooke died of natural causes at his Coral Gables, Florida, home, said Ralph Neas, Brooke's former chief counsel. Brooke was surrounded by his family.

Brooke was elected to the Senate in 1966, becoming the first black to sit in that branch from any state since Reconstruction and one of nine blacks who have ever served there - including Barack Obama.

After Obama's presidential election in 2008, Brooke told The Associated Press he was "thankful to God" that he had lived to witness the historic accomplishment. But it was the president who remembered Brooke with praise Saturday.

"Senator Brooke led an extraordinary life of public service," Obama said in a statement. "As the first African-American elected as a state's Attorney General and first African-American U.S. Senator elected after reconstruction, Ed Brooke stood at the forefront of the battle for civil rights and economic fairness."

A Republican in a largely Democratic state, Brooke was one of Massachusetts' most popular political figures during most of his 12 years in the Senate.