Jay Rockefeller, the former governor of West Virginia and a US senator for 30 years, has died at the age of 89.

Rockefeller died on Thursday night at his home in Washington, DC, said Mary Stewart, vice president for external affairs at WETA, the public broadcasting station where his wife, Sharon, serves as president and chief executive. No cause of death was disclosed.

Born John D. Rockefeller IV in New York City, he was the great-grandson of Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller. He arrived in West Virginia in 1964 as a worker in the Volunteers in Service to America anti-poverty programme in the mining community of Emmons.

From anti-poverty worker to governor

Rockefeller said his time in Emmons shaped everything that followed. "It explains every policy I pursued and every vote I have cast," he said in his farewell speech from the Senate floor in December 2014.

He was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates as a Democrat in 1966, won the governorship in 1976, serving two terms until 1985, then won a US Senate seat in 1984 and served five terms before retiring in 2015.

Legacy in health care and coal country

As chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, Rockefeller championed consumer rights and broadband expansion. He authored legislation in 1997 that created the Children's Health Insurance Program, which helps families whose incomes are too high for Medicaid.

He also chaired the committees on Veterans' Affairs and Intelligence, and later said he regretted his 2002 vote authorising the war in Iraq.

West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey said Rockefeller "helped shape the state and left a lasting mark on the lives of generations of West Virginians." Senator Shelley Moore Capito called him "a true gentleman".