He was remembered with a memorial service in his hometown of Kankakee.
Ryan had recently been moved into hospice care in his home before his death, former Illinois House Republican leader Jim Durkin said last Friday.
A visitation was held Tuesday at Schreffler Funeral Home - Kankakee Chapel, 1900 W. Court St. in Kankakee.
The memorial service began at noon Thursday at Asbury United Methodist Church, 196 S. Harrison Ave. in Kankakee.
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Old friends and neighbors and even political rivals joined the Ryan family to pay their respects.
During the service, Ryan's friend Larry Warren praised the former governor's son and four daughters for the way they cared for their father the past three years, so he could remain at home.
Norman Strasma was a longtime friend.
"I think he was very friendly, you know, and definitely very interested in doing good things in this world. And when he got in the political world, he was doing the same thing," Strasma said.
Democrats joined with Republicans to pay their respects to Ryan, who began his political career on the Kankakee County Board.
Joe Berrios is the former Cook County Democratic Party chairman and assessor.
He remembers Ryan as someone who would work across the aisle to get things done.
"George Ryan was very, very good person who, when I was down in Springfield for the six years that I was, you were able to talk to him. You were able to work with him, and you know, we would be able to talk to each other and say, you know, I need to help in the Hispanic community," Berrios said.
There were only passing mentions of Ryan's prison term on federal corruption charges.
But he was praised for his moratorium on the death penalty, that friends said was not done for political reasons.
"He couldn't accept the responsibility of taking someone's life as an elected official. He couldn't deal with that," longtime friend Hedy Ratner said.
The Republican served as governor from 1999 to 2003. His most high-profile act as governor was to place a moratorium on the death penalty in Illinois.
"He was someone who was blessed with the opportunity to try to make a difference on a bigger scale. And he did," said Pastor Scott Henley, with Asbury United Methodist Church.
Ryan grew up in Kankakee, where he worked in the family pharmacy before beginning a 40-year career serving in state government.
He rose from speaker of the Illinois House, winning a statewide election as lieutenant governor and secretary of state. He then served just one term as Illinois' governor.
The former governor made international headlines halting the state's death penalty, but that was overshadowed by his conviction on federal corruption. When Ryan was Illinois secretary of state in 1994, a truck driver who illegally obtained his commercial license, killed six children in a blazing crash.
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His wife, Lura Lynn, died while he was in prison. He was released in 2013.
Ryan's halting of the death penalty earned him considerations for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Ryan's legacy may be a complicated one, but his funeral was about remembering the positive impact he had as a public servant, neighbor and friend.