Roberta Mccain
Matriarch who campaigned for her son John as US president
ROBERTA MCCAIN, who has died aged 108, was the gregarious matriarch of the Mccain family, whose members were at the centre of American military and political life for more than half a century.
A mainstay of Washington’s social circuit, she rose to national prominence campaigning for her son, Senator John Mccain, during his unsuccessful bid for the US presidency in 2008.
Then in her late nineties, she attempted to allay voters’ concerns about her son’s age by pointing to her own sprightliness. Much to the alarm of his aides, she spoke candidly to journalists, at one point telling Republicans put off by her son’s independent streak that they would have to “hold their noses” and vote for him.
When he was asked in a joint television interview if he ever told his mother to tone it down, she cut in: “It wouldn’t do him any good.”
Roberta Mccain was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, on February 7 1912, the daughter of an oil wildcatter who struck it rich and retired early. He relocated the family to Los Angeles and took his children on long road trips, which instilled in Roberta Mccain a lifelong love of travel.
As a mother she took her children on similar holidays, with itineraries featuring galleries, museums and natural wonders such as the Grand Canyon. She described these trips as her “mobile classroom”.
In 1933, aged 20, she eloped one weekend to Tijuana, Mexico, to marry a young naval ensign who her disapproving parents had banned her from seeing a year before. It was her third attempt; the first failed when her car broke down, while on the second she got cold feet.
Still a college student at the time, she brought her textbooks with her and was back the following Monday to sit her exams.
Her husband, John S Mccain Jr, rose to the rank of four-star admiral and from 1968 to 1972 was the commander of all US forces in Vietnam. His career offered Roberta Mccain ample opportunity to travel,
which she exploited with relish.
When he was a ship’s captain, she would fly ahead of him to ports such as Genoa and Barcelona, staying in budget hotels at her own expense; later she hitched lifts on military planes ferrying him to meetings across east Asia. When queried about this, she responded: “I like parties all over the world.”
She continued travelling well into her nineties, often with her twin sister Rowena, with whom she would take months-long road trips to visit cultural sites. In Paris she was told she was too old to rent a car, so instead she bought herself a bright red BMW, which she drove from Munich to Uzbekistan on a subsequent trip. Later she drove it solo across the US, picking up a speeding ticket in Arizona for doing 112 miles per hour.
When her son John was shot down over Hanoi, she wrote to President Lyndon Johnson, reiterating her support for the war, and refused to request special treatment during his five and a half years in captivity. He died in 2018; at the memorial service in Washington, Roberta Mccain was the last member of her family to touch his coffin.
Asked about the secret to her longevity. She replied: “I don’t do anything I’m supposed to do. I don’t exercise, and today I’ve already eaten a half a box of caramel popcorn. Honey, I’ve had a dream life, and it was all luck.”
Her husband died in 1981, her twin sister in 2011; her daughter Jean Alexandra died last year. She is survived by her son Joseph, as well as 10 grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and seven great-greatgrandchildren.
Roberta Mccain, born, February 7 1912, died October 12 2020