Colin Powell Dead At 84, Ohio Governor Mourns

OHIO — As news of Colin Powell's death spread through the nation, some of Ohio's most prominent leaders and citizens mourned the 84-year-old's passing.

Powell, the first Black U.S. secretary of state and and Joint Chiefs chairman, died of complications of COVID-19, his family said on social media Monday. The 84-year-old died at Walter Reed National Medical Center. He was fully vaccinated.

“Today our country has lost one of its most accomplished citizens, General Colin L. Powell. A son of Jamaican immigrants, General Powell served his country in the U.S. Army beginning in ROTC and rose through the ranks to become a four-star general and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff," Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement.

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In 2001, when he was confirmed in the Senate as Bush's secretary of state, Powell was the highest-ranking Black public official in the country, CNN reported.