The mother of Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of Virgin Airlines, has died of coronavirus.
Mr Branson announced on Monday that his 96-year-old mother, Eve Branson has passed away, saying she “held on for one last victory, managing to fight off the virus, but had expended all of her energy in the process”.
In a blog post, he said that one of his sisters and his nephew were with her “until the end” as well the “wonderful nurses who she entertained with tales from her life and much laughter over glasses of whisky.”
Branson wrote that his mother had taught his siblings the “importance of hard work, of not taking yourself too seriously, of treating people how you wish to be treated, of entrepreneurship, and so much more.”
The British billionaire said she was “always working on a project” when he was young and that she was “inventive, fearless, relentless — an entrepreneur before the word existed.”
Branson also credits the start of the Virgin conglomerate to a £100 given to him by his mother after she sold a necklace.
He said the name of one of Virgin Galatic’s spacecraft, VMS Eve, is named after her and that she “will always be my mothership.”
Mr Branson’s father died in 2011. Together, they had three children – Richard, Lindy and Vanessa.
CNN News.
