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John McCain’s mother, Roberta McCain, dies at 108

By Theresa Seiger, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
By Theresa Seiger, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

Roberta McCain, the mother of the late Sen. John McCain, has died, her daughter-in-law announced Monday. She was 108.

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“I couldn’t have asked for a better role model or a better friend,” Cindy McCain wrote Monday in a social media post announcing her mother-in-law’s death.

Her cause of death was not immediately known.

Born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in 1912, Roberta McCain celebrated her 108th birthday in February. Her granddaughter, Meghan McCain, marked the occasion on social media, calling her grandmother “completely ageless, classic, loving, strong, smart, sarcastic, irreverent and all things I love in this world.”

Known for her feisty and energetic spirit, Roberta McCain was 96 when she traveled across the country to help push her son’s case in the 2008 presidential race. During the 2008 Republican National Convention, her son credited “her love of life, her deep interest in the world, her strength, and her belief we are all meant to use our opportunities to make ourselves useful to our country. I wouldn’t be here tonight but for the strength of her character.”

She made her last public appearance in 2018, after her son died of brain cancer.

Roberta McCain’s father was a businessman whose varied, colorful enterprises included bootlegging and oil wildcatting. The family moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1920s.

In 1933, when she was 20, she defied her family and eloped with John “Jack” McCain Jr. in Tijuana, Mexico, The Arizona Republic reported. Documents released in 2008 showed that as a young ensign, Jack McCain got into trouble when the couple decided to marry and he left his ship without permission.

“I got married young,” Roberta McCain told The Muskogee Phoenix in 2008. “I was 20 years old, and it was the best decision I ever made.”

The couple had three children: John McCain, Joe McCain and Jean “Sandy” McCain, who died in 2019.

Roberta McCain married into a storied military family — her husband retired in 1972 with the rank of four-star admiral, the same rank held by his father, John S. “Slew” McCain Sr. Her son was later held as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam even as his father was commander in chief of Pacific forces by the late 1960s.

She is survived by her son, Joe McCain, and several grandchildren.

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Dawn Wells FILE PHOTO: Actress Dawn Wells attends the 2015 TV Land Awards at Saban Theatre on April 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, California. Wells died Wednesday of illness related to COVID-19. She was 82. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images) (Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Cox Media Group

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