Jimmy Buffett's sister: We both battled cancer at the same time

Laurie Buffett McGuane, one of iconic singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett’s two younger sisters, says she and her late brother each had been diagnosed with cancer during the same time frame.

“It was four years ago and Jimmy was actually diagnosed first,” McGuane, 74, the wife of author-screenwriter Thomas McGuane (“Ninety-Two in the Shade”), told People magazine in an article posted Monday. “When Jimmy found out [I had cancer] he brought the whole family and the dogs to Montana to be with me.”

Buffett, a North Haven resident, died at home Friday at age 76 of a rare form of skin cancer. Laurie McGuane and another sister, Lucy aka Lulu, 69, were among the family members present when he passed. “Lulu and I were just with Bubba,” McGuane wrote on Instagram Saturday, using his family nickname. “We talked about our childhood where only siblings can relate. I told him I’ve known him longer than anyone on the planet. He smiled with those twinkling blue eyes and squeezed my hand."

“Jimmy and I became closer because of our cancers,” McGuane, who is in remission following surgery for pancreatic cancer, told People. “We talked before and after our scans,” she added. “We shared a club that nobody wants to join. I am thunderstruck that Jimmy didn’t make it.”

The “Margaritaville” hitmaker and laid-back lifestyle business mogul had not revealed the nature of his illness, explaining only that medical reasons had caused him to postpone or cancel several shows between 2021 and this year. One of his final performances was his Aug. 9, 2022, show at Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, where he performed annually.

“He brought joy to so many,” McGuane said in her interview and a separate People article. “I am very emotional now. When Jimmy was in the world, I felt safe. Even though I have Tom, it will be a whole new thing for me to be without my brother Jimmy.”

She and her sister, she said in the second article, “shared memories of our childhood with Jimmy during his last days. … We would repeat stories, and Jimmy would laugh and nod his head to let us know that he remembered. I have never seen Jimmy depressed ever. Not even at the end. We all like to joke and laugh and that was very much Jimmy.”

And he remained himself at the end, said Thomas McGuane. “He was always high-spirited, fun-loving, hard working and creative,” the 83-year-old bestselling author, Buffett’s friend for five decades, told the magazine. “It is remarkable to be able to say that he remained the same during the last month of his life. His sense of humor was fully intact. God bless him for keeping himself that way.”