Spirited mother of presidential hopeful was his secret weapon

Roberta Wright McCain, the mother of US Senator John McCain, who in her mid90 s became the secret weapon of her son’s bid for the White House, has died at the age of 108.

In 2008, she used her feisty spirit to win over voters in the Republican nominee’s unsuccessful fight against Barack Obama for the presidency, telling them that they should not worry about his age as a candidate in his 70s.

The daughter of an Oklahoma businessman whose varied enterprises included bootlegging and oil drilling through wildcat wells, Roberta moved with her family to LA in the mid’20s. In 1933, at the age of 20, she eloped with John McCain Jr in what she later described as the best decision she ever made.

He r husband was a submarine commander in the Second World War.

He later held key congressional Navy posts, retiring in 1972 from the rank of four- star admiral and died in 1981.

The couple had two sons and a daughter, including the man she called Johnny who became senator for Arizona following a distinguished military career himself.

At the 2008 Republican convention, Senator McCain hailed his mother’s “love of life, deep interest in the world, her strength and belief we are all meant to use our opportunities to make ourselves useful to our country”. In a memoir about his experience as a PoW for nearly six years in a North Vietnamese prison, John McCain described times when he swore in English at his Vietnamese guards.

His mother later told him: “Johnny, I’m going to come over there and wash your mouth out with soap.”

Roberta was predeceased by Senator John McCain in 2018 but her other son Joe was at his mother’s side at her Washington home when she died earlier this week.

SUPPORTIVE: Roberta McCain during a rally for her son.