Powell was an American politician, diplomat and statesman par excellence' whose decorated military career spanned several decades, including four Republican administrations at the White House. He was a retired four-star general who served as the 65th United States secretary of state from 2001 to 2005

He endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president in 2008, and got away with it, politically.

"General Colin L. Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, passed away this morning due to complications from Covid 19,"  a  Powell family spokesperson wrote on Facebook.

His family's Facebook post also said that Powell, whose widow has Covid-19, was "fully vaccinated"

The former top military officer and national security adviser, Powell died Monday at the Walter Reed Medical Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. In addition to the coronavirus pandemic, which has plagued the nation and the world since it hit with a vengeance in 2020, the retired four-star general was also struggling with Parkinson's disease and multiple myeloma, a cancer of plasma cells that suppresses the body's immune response. And he had recently undergone surgery for prostate cancer.

He was a foreign policy guru who once toyed with running for president.

And though Powell was a Republican, he crossed partisan lines when he deemed it appropriate, not only when he endorsed Obama for president, but on other crucial times in American history, and relative to the shaping of public policy.

He joined Obama, the nation's first Black president who served for 2009-2017, in supporting same sex marriage, which the Supreme Court made legal in every state in the country in 2015.

A rare position taken by a prominent Republican operative such as Powell, he had previously opposed same sex marriage

Powell's endorsement of Obama in 2008 for the presidency over then Republican nominee and Arizona Sen. John McCain stunned the big wigs of the Republican Party and drew public criticism from top party affiliates like Karl Rove, Bush's political adviser at the time and the architect of his successful campaigns of two-terms as president. But Powell shoved it off and said publicly that Obama, then a junior U.S. senator from Illinois, was simply the better candidate for president. 

Obama pushed for same sex marriage during both terms in office, but more emphatically during his  second term where he gained the support of Congress and advocates worldwide, and so many human and Civil Rights organizations, including the National NAACP and its then president and CEO Ben Jealous.

Obama remembered Powell as brilliant, broadminded and independent when necessary, and told CNN that Powell always put America first.

"Everyone who worked with General Powell appreciated his clarity of thought, insistence on seeing all sides, and ability to execute," Obama said. "And although he'd be the first to acknowledge that he didn't get every call right, his actions reflected what he believed was best for America and the people he served."

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.