SEN. THAD COCHRAN, R-Miss., speaks to supporters following his victory over Democrat Travis Childers and Reform Party candidate Shawn O'Hara in 2014.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — In the Washington political scene of bombast and big egos, Republican Thad Cochran of Mississippi wielded power with a quiet, gentlemanly demeanor.

He played piano in his Capitol Hill office and dashed off handwritten notes of thanks or congratulations to constituents. The white conservative reared in the segregationist the Deep South hired African American staff members, supported historically black universities and received support from black voters who provided a crucial margin for victory in his final campaign. As a leader on agriculture and budget issues, he steered billions of dollars to his home state.

Cochran died Thursday at age 81, just over a year after retiring.

“I’m optimistic about the future of our great nation,” a notably feeble Cochran had said during his farewell speech on the Senate floor in March 2018. He was the 10th longest-serving U.S. senator.

He served 45 years in Washington, with the first six years in the House and the rest in the Senate. He became known the “Quiet Persuader,” cultivating loyalty and respect from his staff and from politicians inside and outside his home state.

Cochran, who served in the Navy, died at a veterans’ nursing home in Oxford, Mississippi, said his final chief of staff, Brad White.

“I’ve never known a more powerful man, nor a more humble man — a true Southern gentleman that loved the great state of Mississippi,” White said.

President Donald Trump said on Twitter, “He was a real Senator with incredible values — even flew back to Senate from Mississippi for important Healthcare Vote when he was desperately ill.”

Cochran was an attorney in private practice when he was elected to the U.S. House in 1972. Winning a Senate seat in 1978, he became the first Republican since Reconstruction to win statewide office in Mississippi.

He led the Appropriations Committee in 2005-06, channeling more than $100 billion to Mississippi and other Gulf Coast states for Hurricane Katrina recovery after the 2005 storm, and regained the committee chairmanship in January 2015, when the GOP again took control of the Senate.

Cochran won reelection in 2014, but announced in 2018 that he was retiring because of his health.

Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi said Thursday that Cochran was “a dear personal friend for decades.”

“Thad Cochran was a giant in the United States Senate and one of the greatest champions Mississippi has ever known,” said Wicker, who has served in the Senate since 2007.