{"id":662693,"date":"2026-05-24T18:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T18:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/662693\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T18:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T18:10:13","slug":"douglas-mccain-the-eldest-son-of-sen-john-mccain-dies-at-66","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/662693\/","title":{"rendered":"Douglas McCain, the eldest son of Sen. John McCain, dies at 66"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington \u2014 Douglas McCain, the eldest son of the late Sen. John McCain, has died, his family announced. He was 66.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am deeply saddened to share the news of my brother Doug McCain&#8217;s sudden passing,&#8221; Meghan McCain said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DYsFYvpjpDV\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">post<\/a> on social media Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>McCain died suddenly on May 20, his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hdoliver.com\/obituaries\/Douglas-Shepp-Mccain?obId=48468757\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">obituary<\/a> said. He was the son of a military hero who had a long career in the Senate before his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/john-mccain-dead-81-arizona-maverick-senator-death-after-stopped-brain-cancer-treatment-live-updates\/\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">death in 2018<\/a> after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. The younger McCain flew A-6 Intruders in the Navy for six years before going on to work as a pilot at American Airlines.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He was a truly wonderful, joyful man who supported me throughout my life. He brought humor, fun and great conversation to every room,&#8221; Meghan McCain said. &#8220;I will cherish our memories together.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The McCain Institute <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/McCainInstitute\/status\/2058280704056639694\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">said<\/a> Saturday that McCain &#8220;will be remembered as a patriot and friend to the many alumni of Sen. McCain&#8217;s Institute, campaigns &amp; Senate staff.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He is survived by his wife Ashley, his two children, Caroline and Douglas, and his mother, Carol Shepp, along with his siblings and step-siblings. John McCain adopted Douglas after his marriage to Shepp in 1965. John and Shepp divorced in 1980, and he went on to marry Cindy McCain.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n          More from CBS News\n        <\/p>\n<p>\n                Go deeper with The Free Press\n              <\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Washington \u2014 Douglas McCain, the eldest son of the late Sen. John McCain, has died, his family announced.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-662693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}