Nancy Bush Ellis, Sister of George H. W. Bush, Dead at 94 Due to COVID-19 Complications

Nancy Bush Ellis, the sister of former President George H.W. Bush and the aunt of former President George W. Bush, has died. Ellis died on Sunday at an assisted living facility in Concord, Massachusetts, from complications related to COVID-19, her son Alexander Ellis III told The New York Times. According to Alexander, Ellis tested positive for the virus after being hospitalized with a fever on Dec. 30. Although her symptoms went away after a few days, Ellis’ general health continued to decline. She was 94.

Ellis’ death was also confirmed Monday by George & Barbara Bush Foundation, which wrote in a statement, “we are sad to share that President Bush’s beloved sister, Nancy Bush Ellis, has passed away.” The foundation sent “condolences and prayers” to “the Ellis and Bush families as we remember a remarkable woman who brought joy and light to the world.”

Born on Feb. 4, 1926, in Milton, Massachusetts, Ellis graduated from Vassar College in 1946, the same year she married Alexander Ellis Jr. Although her family made up a Republican dynasty, Ellis was a Democrat who was an activist for causes including environmental and antipoverty causes. She also raised money for the NAACP and served as head of the New England section of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Despite being a Democrat, Ellis “was a wonderfully energetic campaigner and cheerleader for her brother,” after her brother announced that he was running for president in 1979. Her son said “there was no more fiercely loyal person on the planet.”

Ellis also campaigned for her nephew, who was governor of Texas before he became president in 2000. She campaigned in the U.S. and internationally in London, Paris and Frankfurt, Germany on behalf of Republicans Abroad when he ran for re-election in 2004.

“She was a Democrat for whom family came first,” presidential historian Jon Meacham told The Times. “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.”

Ellis was also a board member and honorary director of the Massachusetts Audubon Society and served on the board of Pact, a nonprofit fighting against poverty worldwide. She is survived by her daughter, Nancy Walker Ellis Black, and three sons – Alexander, John Prescott Ellis and Josiah Wear Ellis – as well as nine grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren, and her brother, 89-year-old James Bush. She is preceded in death by her husband, who, died in 1989 at age 67, and her older brother, the former president, who died in 2018. Another older brother, Prescott S. Bush Jr., died in 2010, and her younger brother, William H.T. Bush, died in 2018.