John F. Russo, a longtime former state senator and Senate president, died Saturday night. He was 84. Russo, a Democrat from Ocean County, died after a battle with esophageal cancer, his daughter, Caryl Lynn Russo told NJ Advance Media in a phone interview on Sunday.

"It was a courageous fight," she said, adding that he was diagnosed in late spring or early summer. "He did not suffer. We're just extremely grateful for that." Caryl Russo said her father was a "devoted public leader" who ran the Senate in a "true bipartisan manner."