Roberta McCain, Mother of Late Sen. John McCain, Dies at 108
‘GREAT SADNESS’
Roberta McCain, the mother of late Arizona Sen. John McCain, has died on Monday at the age of 108. “It is with great sadness that I announce the death of my wonderful Mother In-law, Roberta McCain. I couldn’t have asked for a better role model or a better friend. She joins her husband Jack, her son John and daughter Sandy,” Cindy McCain, her daughter-in-law, said in a Monday tweet announcing the news. Details of how the 108-year-old matriarch of the McCain dynasty died have not yet been released. Sen. John McCain, once a Republican presidential nominee and long-term Arizona senator, died in August 2018 of brain cancer.
Born in 1912, McCain was an oil heiress who was married to one of the Navy’s highest-ranking officers, Admiral John S. McCain Jr., The Washington Post reports. The 108-year-old emerged as a public figure when John McCain ran for the Republican presidential nomination for a second time in 2008, traveling around the country with him on the campaign trail. The Post reports that in a 2008 interview, McCain explained that Republicans unhappy her son’s independent nature would have to “hold their noses”—and vote for him.