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In the final months of his life, fighting a losing battle against the effects of brain cancer and a stroke, Republican U.S. Rep. Alan Nunnelee of Mississippi said he drew strength from a Bible verse about giving thanks to God in all circumstances.

"I am glad the Scripture in Thessalonians does not say to give thanks for all circumstances because I would have a difficult time being thankful for a tumor or a stroke, much less both," he told supporters in an email last August. "I have learned the way to approach the difficulty of stroke rehabilitation is to give thanks in all circumstances."

Nunnelee was 56 when he died Friday at his home in Tupelo, less than two weeks after being released from a local hospital and into hospice care.

A fiscal and social conservative, Nunnelee was elected to Congress in a Republican wave of 2010 and became a member of the Appropriations Committee. He had already served 15 years in the Mississippi Senate, where he often set aside partisan differences to build friendships that lasted for years.

President Barack Obama was among those expressing condolences to Nunnelee's family.

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio described Nunnelee as "the rare calming presence in the cauldron of politics."

"He never let cancer get the best of him," Boehner said Friday. "We know this because, at the end of his life, all Alan asked of us was whether he made a difference. Indeed he did, very much so."

Republican Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said Nunnelee was like a brother: "He was the best man I've ever known." Bryant will set a special election later this year to fill the vacancy created by Nunnelee's death.

In addition to chemotherapy and radiation, Nunnelee underwent physical therapy and speech therapy last year to try to recover from the stroke that he had while surgeons were removing a brain tumor.

In late December, Nunnelee was hospitalized in Tupelo for treatment of a bleeding problem in his left leg. He was too ill to go to Washington in January to be sworn in for his third two-year term, so House leaders let him take his oath from a federal judge in Mississippi. Nunnelee took the oath in the hospital, joined by a small group that included his wife, Tori. Nunnelee was released from the hospital Jan. 26 and sent home under hospice care.

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GOP Rep. Nunnelee of Miss. Dies After Brain Cancer, Stroke