Nancy Bush Ellis dies from COVID-19 complications

• Former President George H.W. Bush’s sister, Nancy Bush Ellis, has died at 94 due to coronavirus complications.
• Ellis was hospitalized on Dec. 30 due to a fever and tested positive for COVID-19.
• She passed away on Sunday at an assisted living facility in Massachusetts.

Nancy Bush Ellis, the aunt of former President George W. Bush and the only sister of former President George H.W. Bush, has passed away due to coronavirus-related complications.

Ellis’s son, Alexander Ellis, told The New York Times that his mother was hospitalized on Dec. 30 due to a fever. She then tested positive for COVID-19. On Sunday, she passed away at 94 at an assisted living facility in Concord, Mass.

Despite her family’s well-known Republican dynasty, Ellis championed Democratic causes throughout her life. She had led the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund’s New England section. She also promoted the arts, as well as anti-poverty and environmental causes.

But even with her Democratic views, Ellis was still “a wonderfully energetic campaigner and cheerleader for her brother,” George H.W. Bush, following his presidential campaign announcement in 1979, Ellis’s son told The Times.

She also campaigned nationally and internationally for her nephew, former President George W. Bush. She traveled to Frankfurt, Germany; London, and Paris on behalf of the organization Republicans Abroad, which mobilizes Americans who live overseas to vote. 

Presidential historian Jon Meacham told The Times, “She was a Democrat for whom family came first. She’s a part of this great American ethos that’s almost entirely gone. She was the best kind of aristocrat. There was a sense of service without a shred of snobbery.” 

In their announcement of Ellis’s passing, the George and Barbara Bush Foundation described her as “a remarkable woman who brought joy and light to the world.” 

We are sad to share that President Bush’s beloved sister, Nancy Bush Ellis, has passed away. Our condolences and prayers are with the Ellis and Bush families as we remember a remarkable woman who brought joy and light to the world.
https://t.co/RnjRVVbBFT— George & Barbara Bush Foundation (@BushFdn) January 10, 2021

Ellis was born in Milton, Mass. on Feb. 4, 1926. In 1946, she graduated from Vassar College and married Alexander Ellis Jr.

The pair had four children: Alexander, John Prescott Ellis, Josiah Wear Ellis, and Nancy Walker Ellis Black. She is also survived by nine grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren, and her brother, Johnathan James Bush.

Source: The Hill