NEED TO KNOW
- Former Vice President Dick Cheney died at the age of 84, his family announced on Tuesday, Nov. 4
- The Cheney family said the late politician was surrounded by family at the time of his death
- Cheney served as Vice President under President George W. Bush for both terms
Dick Cheney, a powerful Republican lawmaker who served as the 46th United States vice president under President George W. Bush, died at the age of 84, according to a statement from his family.
Cheney was surrounded by members of his family when he died, including wife Lynne and daughters Liz and Mary as well as others, according to Sky News.
“For decades, Dick Cheney served our nation, including as White House Chief of Staff, Wyoming’s Congressman, Secretary of Defense, and Vice President of the United States,” the Cheney family said in a statement per Sky News.
“Dick Cheney was a great and good man who taught his children and grandchildren to love our country, and to live lives of courage, honor, love, kindness, and fly fishing. We are grateful beyond measure for all Dick Cheney did for our country. And we are blessed beyond measure to have loved and been loved by this noble giant of a man.”
DON'T MISS
Cheney is survived by his high school sweetheart and wife of 61 years, Lynne. The couple shared two daughters, Liz and Mary, and seven grandkids.
Lynne Cheney and then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney at a 1991 White House state dinner.
Ron Sachs/CNP/Getty
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Richard Bruce Cheney was born in Lincoln, Neb., on Jan. 30, 1941, and grew up in Casper, Wyo. He went on to earn a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Wyoming.
Cheney’s career in public service began in 1969 when he joined the Nixon administration, serving in a number of roles: on the Cost of Living Council, at the Office of Economic Opportunity and within the White House.
After leaving government briefly in 1973, Cheney returned to serve on the transition team for Gerald Ford, who assumed the presidency suddenly in August 1974 when President Nixon resigned.
Cheney worked as a deputy White House chief of staff in the Ford administration before moving up to the president’s chief of staff. He also managed Ford’s unsuccessful 1976 presidential campaign.
Cheney was elected six times to serve as Wyoming’s sole congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was also elected by his colleagues to serve as chair of the Republican Policy Committee from 1981 to 1987, chair of the House Republican Conference in 1987, and House minority whip in 1988.
In the House, Cheney took conservative positions on abortion, gun control and environmental regulation, among other issues. In 1978 he suffered the first of several mild heart attacks, undergoing quadruple-bypass surgery in 1988.
Defense Secretary Dick Cheney administers the oath of office to Joint Chiefs Chairman Colin Powell in 1989.
Helene C. Stikkel/DoD via CNP/Getty
During President George H.W. Bush’s single White House term, Cheney served as the secretary of defense, directing two of the largest military campaigns in recent history — Operation Just Cause in Panama and Operation Desert Storm in the Middle East. For his leadership in the Gulf War, Cheney was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bush Sr. on July 3, 1991.
After President Bush lost his reelection bid in 1992, Cheney became a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, later assuming the roles of chairman and chief executive officer of the Halliburton Company, a supplier of technology and services to the oil and gas industries.
Then, when George W. Bush secured the Republican nomination for U.S. president in 2000, Cheney was appointed to head Bush’s vice presidential search committee. Soon after, Cheney himself was announced as the VP candidate. The pair eked to Electoral College victory following a historically close election in which they lost the popular vote.
Dick Cheney, surrounded by wife Lynne and daughters Mary and Liz, is sworn in as vice president.
Two weeks after Election Day, Cheney suffered another mild heart attack.
As vice president, Cheney shaped the administration’s energy policy and foreign policy in the Middle East, including quietly coordinating the “war on terror” in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which set the stage for the invasion of Iraq. He is widely considered the most powerful vice president in U.S. history.
Cheney’s political career came to an end after Bush’s administration — by that time, his approval rating had sunk to 13% — but he remained in the public eye, often speaking on political matters.
Pool Interagences/Gamma-Rapho via Getty
In 2010 he suffered a fifth heart attack, receiving a heart transplant from an anonymous donor two years later.
“Although the former Vice President and his family do not know the identity of the donor, they will be forever grateful for this lifesaving gift,” said a statement from Cheney’s office at the time.
The statement also said that Cheney had been on the waiting list for a new heart for 20 months.
Dick Cheney sits beside his daughter, then-U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
As for his family, daughter Liz followed in her father’s footsteps as a politician.
First elected in 2016, Liz served as Wyoming’s lone representative in the U.S. House of Representatives until 2023, when she lost her reelection bid amid conservative backlash for her vocal opposition of former President Donald Trump. Prior to entering Congress, Liz worked in the State Department, assigned to Middle Eastern affairs.
Cheney’s younger daughter Mary has been an activist and marriage equality advocate since coming out as lesbian we she was in high school.
“Lynne and I have a gay daughter, so it’s an issue our family is very familiar with,” Cheney explained to supporters at a campaign rally in 2004. “With the respect to the question of relationships, my general view is freedom means freedom for everyone. People … ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to.”
The Cheney family.
David Hume Kennerly/Getty
Liz’s once-conservative views on same-sex marriage led to a highly publicized feud between the sisters. In 2021, Liz expressed a change of heart, saying she was “wrong” for opposing gay marriage. Mary, in turn, shared appreciation for Liz’s growth and her willingness to go against the Republican Party’s official stance on the matter.
Cheney’s career and family were the subject of 2018’s Best Picture–nominated film Vice, starring Christian Bale as the titular character.
