The oldest brother of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Donald Reed Herring, has died from the coronavirus, the senator said Thursday.

The former Democratic presidential candidate said her brother died Tuesday evening. He spent his career in the military after joining the U.S. Air Force at the age of 19 and was "charming and funny, a natural leader," Warren tweeted.

“I’m grateful to the nurses and frontline staff who took care of him, but it’s hard to know that there was no family to hold his hand or to say ‘I love you’ one more time—and no funeral for those of us who loved him to hold each other close. I’ll miss you dearly my brother," she said.

The Boston Globe reported that Reed, 86, died in Norman, Oklahoma, about three weeks after testing positive for the virus.

Herring flew B-47 and B-52 bombers for the Air Force, and flew 288 combat missions in Vietnam, the newspaper reported. He served as a B-52 squadron pilot and a squadron aircraft commander before retiring in 1973 as a lieutenant colonel.

“What made him extra special was his smile—quick and crooked, it always seemed to generate its own light, one that lit up everyone around him,” Warren said.

Share:
More In Culture
Need2Know: COVID Boosters, Space Race & Spelling Bee Champ
Tropical storm warnings in the Northeast, more extreme heat in the Southwest, and shellfish baked alive in the Northwest. The climate emergency is here. In less depressing news, space history will be made this weekend, Marvel's Black Widow looks at a huge open and our new Spelling Bee champ. Plus, the kitchen junk drawer...love or hate?
Need2Know: Elsa Landfall, NYC Mayor's Race & 4-Day Workweek
Carlo's back in the office, where Jill has been toiling for months. They're talking Tropical Storm Elsa as it prepares to make landfall in Florida, President Biden shifting the vaccine strategy, Subway reshuffles the deck, an update on the Britney Spears conservatorship, and why aren't we all working 4-day workweeks yet?
Need2Know: Tracking Elsa, New Amazon Boss & Cannes Return
Jill and Carlo are back after a long weekend, talking about the tropical storm that's heading toward Florida and what it could mean to the recovery operations in Surfside. Plus, the new Covid variant to keep an eye on and Mark Zuckerberg's answer to Facebook's woes: more Mark Zuckerberg.
Load More