COVID-19

Ron Golden, older brother to Minnesota’s Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, died March 21 due to complications related to the coronavirus. Golden’s immune system was compromised after having been diagnosed with cancer just weeks before contracting COVID-19, Flanagan said in an Instagram post. He was the second resident to succumb to the disease at the time. “To many, he’ll be a statistic: Tennessee’s second COVID-related death. But to me, I’ll remember a loving, older brother, uncle, father, and husband,” Flanagan said. Flanagan described her brother as a “tough-as-nails Marine who was a big teddy bear on the inside.” Flanagan, a Democrat, said her brother’s politics weren’t like hers “AT ALL” and the two often joked about it. In January, the two mourned the death of their father, Marvin Manypenny. Golden was a member of the Native American band White Earth Band of Ojibwe, located in northwestern Minnesota, but was raised in Tennessee, where he died. Golden’s widow, Jose Golden, plans to spread his ashes in Minnesota where their father is buried, Flanagan told reporters March 25.