Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced on Thursday that her brother had passed away from coronavirus-related complications.
Warren’s announcement on Twitter said that her oldest brother, Donald Reed Herring, passed on Tuesday evening six days after being moved to the intensive care unit at Norman Regional Hospital in Norman, Oklahoma.
The U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, who was a previous contender for the 2020 Democratic nomination, spoke often of her brothers.
Her three older brothers were featured in a campaign ad that ran earlier this year when she was still seeking the Democratic nomination. Two of her brothers attended a campaign rally in her hometown of Oklahoma City, but Herring was not in attendance.
CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/23/politics/elizabeth-warren-coronavirus-donald-reed-herring-brother/index.html
Warren has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, calling for an open investigation into the President’s handling of the situation on Wednesday. The senator had not previously acknowledged her family’s own personal battle with the virus.
In her statement, Warren expressed gratitude to the nurses and front-line staff who took care of her brother in his final moments but acknowledged the difficulty of not being able to be there with him or hold a funeral service for their family members.
Herring was born in 1933 and attended the University of Oklahoma, but did not graduate, before enlisting in the Air Force, where he flew B-47 and B-52 bombers. He flew 288 combat missions in Vietnam, eventually becoming a B-52 squadron pilot and a squadron aircraft commander. He earned numerous decorations before retiring in 1973 as a lieutenant colonel and starting an auto-detailing business.
The Boston Globe: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/04/23/nation/elizabeth-warrens-oldest-brother-dies-coronavirus-oklahoma/
Members of congress expressed their support for Warren and her family.
In addition to his siblings, Herring is survived by his wife Judith Anne Hart and his two sons, John and Jeffrey.
In her tweet, Warren said:
What made him extra special was his smile—quick and crooked, it always seemed to generate its own light, one that lit up everyone around him.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1253332677840666630
