John Maurice Laxalt

John Maurice Laxalt was born on August 23, 1926, in Carson City, Nevada, the fourth of six children of Dominique and Therese Laxalt, immigrants from the Basque region of France who came to the United States in the early 1900s and became part of a pioneering Basque family in Nevada. He was 85 at the time of his death.

Mr. Laxalt built a legal career that carried him from Nevada to the nation's capital. He practiced as an attorney in Washington, D.C., through the 1970s and 1980s, the years during which his brother, Paul Laxalt, served as a United States senator. He was regarded as a trusted adviser to his brother, who described him as "a fiercely independent individual with a keen wit until the very end" and as "a kind and decent person."

After his years in Washington, Mr. Laxalt returned to Nevada, living in Las Vegas for several years before moving back to his original home town of Carson City. He was preceded in death by his parents and by his brothers Robert and Peter, and was survived by his sisters Suzanne and Marie, his brother Paul, and numerous nieces, nephews, and grand nieces and nephews.