Jean Alexandra “Sandy” Morgan, the sister of the late Arizona Sen. John McCain, died Wednesday morning at 85.
John McCain’s widow, Cindy, announced the death of her sister-in-law via Twitter, sharing that Morgan and her brother John “are together again.” She also shared a photo of Sandy, John, and younger brother Joe as children with their parents and grandfather.
Sandy Morgan sister to Sen John S McCain passed those morning. There are together again. pic.twitter.com/QTt4Oup4nQ
— Cindy McCain (@cindymccain) November 6, 2019
Morgan’s younger brother, John S. McCain III, died August 2018 from brain cancer while representing Arizona in the U.S. Senate. He had launched two bids for the presidency, in 2000 and 2008, and was a member of Congress for 35 years. McCain was also a decorated Navy veteran who spent five years as a Vietnam prisoner of war.
Morgan is survived by her mother, Roberta, 107, youngest brother Joe McCain II, 77, and two daughters. Her husband, U.S. Navy Adm. Henry Sturgis Morgan Jr., died in 2011 at age 86. Her father, Adm. John “Jack” McCain Jr., died in 1981.
“My children join me in extending our heartfelt condolences to Sandy’s daughters, Alex and Kate, and to John and Sandy’s mother, Roberta McCain, who has had to say good-bye to two of her children,” Cindy McCain said to the Arizona Republic. “May God lighten their bereavement with the knowledge that Sandy is at home with the Lord, and reunited with her husband, Henry, and her brother, John.” McCain also noted that Morgan had passed “peacefully.”
During John McCain’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000, Sandy Morgan defended her brother against then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush for implying that McCain did not support breast cancer research. Morgan, a breast cancer survivor, rejected the critique. “It’s absurd because I’ve followed his voting record, and I know how he feels and how supportive he’s been as a loving brother,” she said at the time. “It annoys me because it’s just another attack on my brother, which is unwarranted.”
