Former Rep. Gene Snyder dies at 79

? “Kentucky lost a good friend,” said family friend Joe Whittle, a former U.S. attorney.

Former Rep. Marion G. “Gene” Snyder, an 11-term congressman, has died at age 79.

The conservative Republican died late Friday in Naples, Fla., where he had retired, according to Whittle, who was with Snyder’s family in Florida.

Snyder was first elected in 1962 from Kentucky’s 3rd District, covering Louisville, but lost a re-election bid. He ran again in 1966 for the 4th District seat, and held it for the next two decades. He was succeeded by Jim Bunning, who is now a U.S. senator.

Snyder described himself as a poor boy from “the other side of the tracks in a cold-water flat” in Louisville’s West End, but at the time of his retirement from Congress he was the richest member of Kentucky’s congressional delegation, with assets of $1.6 million according to a financial disclosure form. He earned part of his fortune as a broker of coal and real estate to electric power companies.

“He filled a big space,” said former Rep. Anne Northup, a Republican who is now running for governor. “He was bigger than life in a lot of ways and I know he’ll be missed.”