McCain’s sassy mother (106) expected at services
WASHINGTON: Senator John McCain’s 106yearold mother has been slowed by a stroke but is expected to attend his memorial and burial services this week.
Roberta McCain is set to attend the services in Washington and Maryland for the middle son she called ‘‘Johnny’’.
The former Vietnam prisoner of war, congressman, senator and twotime presi dential candidate died of brain cancer on Saturday at age 81.
Roberta McCain, the wife and mother of Navy admirals lived a life of full of travel and adventure, punctuated by her sass and determination.
She had a habit of speeding behind the wheel and racking up tickets. When told during a trip to Europe she was too old to rent a car, she went out and bought a Peugeot.
Her son once answered the phone to hear his mother say she was driving crosscountry by herself, in her 90s.
McCain said in one of his books that his mother was raised to be a strong, determined woman who thoroughly enjoyed life, and always tried to make the most of her opportunities.
‘‘She was encouraged to accept, graciously and with good humour, the responsibili ties and sacrifices her choices have required of her. I am grateful to her for the strengths she taught me by example,’’ he wrote.
A native of Muskogee, Oklahoma, Roberta Wright was nearly 21 and a college student in southern California when she eloped to Tijuana, Mexico, in January 1933 with a young sailor named John S. McCain Jr who would go on to become an admiral.