Richard Branson and his mother Eve Branson
Clive Rose | Getty Images
LONDON – Virgin founder Richard Branson has revealed that his mother, Eve, has died of coronavirus, in a tribute blog post on Monday.
Branson said Eve, who was 96 when she died, “endured one last victory, managing to fight the virus, but had spent all her energy on the process.”
However, Branson said that instead of mourning his loss, he wanted to “celebrate his wonderful life, his tremendous spirit, the joy he brought to so many and the love he gave us all.”
In dedication to his mother, Branson said he owed her his career. He explained that Eva had found a necklace in the 1960s and after police let her keep the jewelry because no one had claimed it, they sold it and gave her the funds.
“Without those 100 pounds ($ 135), I would never have been able to start Virgin,” said Branson, who founded the now billionaire conglomerate in 1970.
Branson said Eva and her father Edward, who died in 2011, had taught him and his two sisters the “importance of hard work, of not taking yourself too seriously, of treating people the way you want to be treated, of entrepreneurship and much more “.
The founder of the Virgin Mary described her mother as a “force of nature” who had lived “many remarkable lives,” sharing how she took glider lessons disguised as a boy. She also enlisted in the Royal Naval Women’s Service, known as the “Wrens,” during World War II.
After the war, Eve toured Germany as a ballet dancer, performed on the West End stage in London, and worked as a hostess on the “treacherous” South American routes of the American Air Force. .
Branson said his mother was “inventive, fearless, relentless: she was an entrepreneur before the word existed.”
Her mother was also the founder of the Eve Branson Foundation, a small non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and young women in the Atlas Mountains, Morocco, which provided access to education. and health care.