The eldest of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s three older brothers, Don Reed, died Tuesday night, three weeks after testing positive for COVID-19. He was 86.
Warren confirmed the news in a statement and tweet.
My oldest brother, Don Reed, died from coronavirus on Tuesday evening. He joined the Air Force at 19 and spent his career in the military, including five and a half years off and on in combat in Vietnam. He was charming and funny, a natural leader. https://t.co/b8m0xKzAmM
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 23, 2020
“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 tweeted, in part.
Warren, a former Democratic presidential contender, spoke proudly of her brothers on the campaign trail.
Reed was a U.S. Air Force veteran and one of her two Republican brothers. Though he and his siblings only appeared once on the trail with her when she was in Oklahoma, they never spoke to the press. They did appear in a campaign video for their little sister.
Warren had not previously mentioned her brother’s diagnosis, but she has been outspoken about the pandemic’s grip on the world.
