AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Nellie Connally, widow of former Texas Gov. John Connally and last surviving passenger of the limo President Kennedy was shot in, has died at age 87.
A family spokesman said Connally was found dead Saturday in her Austin, Texas, apartment, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
Connally, born Idanell Brill in Austin, met John Connally at the University of Texas. The two were wed in 1940 and Connally devoted herself to caring for her children and supporting her husband's political career, the newspaper said.
The couple was riding in the open-air limousine with President John F. Kennedy in Dallas when he was shot and killed in 1963. Doctors credited Connally with saving her husband's life when she put pressure on his chest wound and slowed the bleeding.
"Nellie was a joy in my life, and I loved her dearly, as America did," former first lady Lady Bird Johnson said through a spokeswoman. "She leaves an emptiness in all of us who knew her."
Connally's husband died in 1993. She is survived by three children, John Connally III of Houston, Sharon Connally Ammann of Marble Falls, Texas, and Mark Madison Connally of Dallas; along with eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
