Joe Paterno has been suffering from lung cancer and was in serious condition, a family spokesman said in a statement Saturday.
His family released a statement Sunday morning to announce his death: "His loss leaves a void in our lives that will never be filled."
Mount Nittany Medical Center said in a statement that Paterno died at 9:25 a.m. Sunday of "metastatic small cell carcinoma of the lung." Metastatic indicates an illness that has spread from one part of the body to an unrelated area.
Paterno had been in the hospital since Jan. 13 for observation for what his family had called minor complications from his cancer treatments. Not long before that, he conducted his only interview since losing his job, with The Washington Post. Paterno was described as frail then, speaking mostly in a whisper and wearing a wig. The second half of the two-day interview was conducted at his bedside.
The hospital said Paterno was surrounded by family members, who have requested privacy.
Paterno's son had said in November that his father had been diagnosed with a treatable form of lung cancer during a follow-up visit for a bronchial illness.
The late Joe Paterno was a legend even before he passed. And that makes getting to the truth of the man even more difficult, writes Jeff MacGregor.Two police officers were stationed to block traffic on the street where Paterno's modest ranch home stands next to a local park. The officers said the family had asked there be no public gathering outside the house, still decorated with a Christmas wreath, so Paterno's relatives could grieve privately. And, indeed, the street was quiet on a cold winter day.
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