Late night star and Mass. native Conan O’Brien’s parents die just days apart

The parents of late-night star and Massachusetts native Conan O’Brien died just three days apart earlier this week.

Ruth Reardon O’Brien died “peacefully” on Thursday, December 12, just three days after Dr. Thomas O’Brien died on Monday, December 9. They both died in their Brookline home.

The couple were married for 66 years and had six children, including Conan.

Dr. Thomas O’Brien served as the first director of the infectious diseases division at what is now Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Ruth O’Brien was one of only four women in her class at Yale Law School. She served as a clerk for a former chief justice at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and was only the second woman to become a partner at the esteemed Ropes and Gray law firm in Boston.

“Science has said there’s no such thing as perpetual motion, but my father was proof that that was wrong,” Conan O’Brien, told the Boston Globe. “My father was in constant motion. And he was interested in everything — absolutely everything.”

Thomas O’Brien graduated from Mary E. Wells High School in Southbridge in 1946 before attending the College of the Holy Cross and received a bachelor’s degree in classics in 1950.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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