Nancy Bush Ellis, sister of former President George HW Bush and aunt of former President George W. Bush, died on Sunday of complications related to COVID-19.
Ellis, 94, died at a community clinic in Concord, Massachusetts. Her son, Alexander Ellis, told The New York Times that she was hospitalized with a fever on December 30 and tested positive for COVID-19.
Although his family constituted a republican dynasty, Ellis was a declared Democrat throughout his life. She served as head of the New England section of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, as well as promoting environmental and anti-poverty causes and defending the arts.
But Ellis “was a wonderfully energetic activist and cheerleader for her brother,” after George HW Bush announced that he was running for president in 1979, Ellis’s son told The Times.
Ellis also campaigned for his nephew, former President George W. Bush. She campaigned in the United States and internationally in London, Paris and Frankfurt, Germany, on behalf of the organization Republicans Abroad, which mobilizes Americans living abroad to vote.
“She was a Democrat for whom the family came first,” presidential historian Jon Meacham told The Times.
“She is part of that great American ethos that is almost completely gone,” he added. “She was the best type of aristocrat. There was a sense of service without an ounce of snobbery. ”
The George and Barbara Bush Foundation on Twitter called Ellis “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 go out to 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 on February 4, 1926 in Milton, Massachusetts. She graduated from Vassar College in 1946, the same year she married Alexander Ellis Jr. The couple had four children.
She left her children – Alexander, John Prescott Ellis, Josiah Wear Ellis and Nancy Walker Ellis Black – as well as nine grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and their brother, Johnathan James Bush.