Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s brother died on Tuesday night at Norman Regional Hospital after testing positive for COVID-19.
Donald Herring was 86. Warren provided a statement to the Boston Globe addressing her brother’s death.
“I’m grateful to the nurses and other front-line staff who took care of my brother, but it is hard to know that there was no family to hold his hand or to say, ‘I love you,’ one more time,” Warren said in the statement. “And now there’s no funeral for those of us who loved him to hold each other close. I will miss my brother.”
Herring attended OU but did not graduate, according to the Globe. Instead, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, where he flew B-47 and B-52 bombers in 288 Vietnam combat missions.
Herring eventually became a B-52 squadron pilot and a squadron aircraft commander, according to the Globe. After earning numerous decorations, he retired in 1973 as a lieutenant colonel and started an auto-detailing business.
Herring was hospitalized for pneumonia in February and moved to a rehabilitation center his family did not identify, according to the Globe. Herring’s family was told the facility in which he was staying had active COVID-19 cases.
After being tested for the virus in early April, Herring received a positive result the next day but was asymptomatic for the following 11 days. According to the Globe, Herring was moved to the intensive care unit at Norman Regional Hospital on April 15, where he died six days later.
Herring lived with his wife Judith Hart in Newcastle, Oklahoma, according to the Globe. In addition to his siblings and wife, Herring leaves his two sons, John and Jeffrey.
Warren posted about her brother’s death on Twitter, describing Herring as “charming and funny,” and a “natural leader.”
“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 in the post.
