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Who was Roberta McCain? John McCain's mother dies at 108 as Internet pays tribute to 'extraordinary matriarch'

Roberta McCain was the Republican senator's secret weapon at campaign stops who convinced voters that they need not worry about her son’s age past 70 as he sought presidency

Roberta Wright McCain, the mother of Senator John McCain who employed her feisty spirit to help convince voters during John’s 2008 presidential campaign, has died at the age of 108. A spokesperson for daughter-in-law Cindy McCain said that Roberta died on Monday, October 12, but the cause of her death was not immediately released.
 
As per Guardian, Roberta was the Republican senator's secret weapon at campaign stops as she convinced voters that they need not worry about her son’s age past 70 as he sought presidency. She was energetic and lively even in her 90s and often traveled with her identical twin sister, Rowena, who died at age 99. She attended the 2008 Republican national convention, where her son said "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." 

As the news of her demise dropped, the Internet expressed their grief. Her daughter in law Cindy wrote, "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." One user wrote, "I have been campaigning for many years for the Republican Party to select Roberta McCain as its candidate for President. Now, all patriotic Americans should honor her memory by voting for Joe Biden in order to rescue democracy, restore decency and save the USA." TV host Greta Susteren wrote, "My very dear friend Roberta McCain died...108 1/2 and what a great run it was and what a great friend she was to me. She loved adventure..loved a good party. Yes, she was elderly but I still never believed this day would come.” 

Senator Lindsey Graham wrote, "To the McCain family: You are in my prayers. Let us celebrate a well-lived life, that of Roberta McCain. She was one of the most confident, interesting, funny, and squared-away people I have ever known." Correspondent Kasie Hunt wrote, "A full life well lived for 108 years. Thinking of the McCain family and grateful, as always, for what Roberta McCain and her family gave our country." Another wrote, "I’m so sad to learn of Roberta McCain’s passing. She was an extraordinary woman; the matriarch of an extraordinary family. While I expect many will say Rest In Peace, I expect that Roberta had no use for rest. A woman of strength to the end."

Who was Roberta Wright McCain?

Roberta was an American socialite, oil heiress and centenarian who was the wife of the US Naval Admiral John S McCain Jr. She was the mother of politician John S McCain III and stage actor and journalist Joe McCain. Roberta’s father became a stay-at-home dad after amassing wealth from the oil industry and her family traveled constantly, with trips every summer while she was young. 

It was 1933 when a 20-year-old Roberta went against her family and eloped with John McCain Jr. Documents released in 2008 revealed that as a young ensign, John Jr got into trouble when the couple decided to marry but Roberta was proud of the decision. "I got married young," she told the Muskogee Phoenix in her native Oklahoma in 2008 as mentioned in The Guardian. "I was 20 years old, and it was the best decision I ever made."

Roberta raised a big family. She gave birth to three children — one daughter and two sons — Jean Alexandra 'Sandy', John Sidney McCain III and Joseph Pinckney 'Joe' McCain II. She also had 12 grandchildren. Being a mother at an early age, she told Oklahoma paper, as mentioned in Daily Mail, that she was “too young and irresponsible to know you were supposed to worry about them. I just let them go. I got a kick out of watching them".

Her husband retired in 1972 with the rank of four-star admiral, the same rank held by his father John S 'Slew' McCain Sr, as reported by The Guardian. McCain established herself as a socialite who used her home as a salon for lawmakers which helped her husband's military career. 

Her other son, Joe, told the Associated Press in 2007 that their family used to have endless dinner table discussions related to history, politics and legislation, mostly led by their mother. "We were all basically on the same side of the fence,” Joe McCain said. “But it was like Talmudic scholars arguing about a single word or an adjective in the Testament.”

The Guardian reported on her amusing nature that when her son John McCain wrote a memoir about his experience in a North Vietnamese prison, he mentioned that many times he swore in English at his Vietnamese guards, who didn’t understand him. Roberta, his mother later quipped and told him: "Johnny, I’m going to come over there and wash your mouth out with soap."

Roberta was a strong-willed person. The Guardian reported that her granddaughter Meghan McCain recalled her sense of duty in a 2012 column for the Daily Beast, writing that Roberta did not have “a lot of patience for excuses, especially from my father when he was growing up and acting out”.

“She once hit him over the head with a Thermos in the back of a car because he was acting up so badly on a road trip,” wrote Meghan McCain. Further, the McCain matriarch’s quirky personality became the stuff of stories for the family and among those in their circle of Washington society, The Guardian reports.