Charleston, W.Va. - Craning their necks and clapping to Appalachian music, West Virginians bid farewell Friday to Robert C. Byrd, their beloved senator who rose from childhood poverty in a coal mining town to become the nation's longest-serving member of Congress.

President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, former President Bill Clinton and other dignitaries watched as Byrd's casket was carried down the red-carpeted steps of the state Capitol where he began his political career in 1947. Byrd, who died Monday at 92, never lost an election.

"I'll remember him as he was when I came to know him," Obama said, "his white hair flowing like a mane, his gait steady with a cane, determined to make the most of every last breath. The distinguished gentleman from West Virginia could be found at his desk to the very end and doing the people's business."

Obama recalled an early discussion with Byrd, who as a young man joined the Ku Klux Klan.

"He said there are some things I regretted in my youth," Obama said. "I said, 'None of us are absent of some regrets. ... That's why we enjoy and seek the grace of God."'

"As I reflect on the full sweep of 92 years, it seems to me that his life bent toward justice," Obama said. "Robert Byrd possessed that quintessential American quality. That is a capacity to change, a capacity to learn, a capacity to listen, to be made more perfect."

Former President Bill Clinton sought to humanize Byrd, a fellow Democrat, after other speakers canonized him.

Recalling Byrd's ability to bring billions of dollars to West Virginia, Clinton said he told the senator: "If you pave every single inch of West Virginia, it's going to be much harder to mine coal." Byrd responded that "the Constitution does not prohibit humble servants from delivering whatever they can to their constituents."

Victoria Kennedy, widow of Sen. Ted Kennedy, recalled watching Byrd vote in favor of Obama's health care reform bill on Christmas Eve.

"I was in the gallery, and tears flowed down my cheeks when he said, 'Mr. President, this is for my friend Ted Kennedy. Aye."'

Kennedy and Byrd became close friends after a brief rivalry for power in the Senate. When Kennedy, who was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2008, became ill during Obama's inauguration, Byrd was overcome with emotion and had to leave.

Biden reminded the crowd how much Byrd cared about improving the condition of those he represented.

"This is a guy who continued to taste, smell and feel the suffering of the people of his state," Biden said.