Heitkamp's mother dies after battle with Parkinson's disease

BISMARCK — U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp's mother died Sunday, April 29, at the age of 88, the North Dakota Democrat announced on Facebook.

Doreen Heitkamp, of Mantador, N.D., was "the rock of our family," the senator said in a Facebook post accompanying a family photo. She was a "school cook with a high school degree," but "she told us we would go to college and change the world," Heidi Heitkamp added.

Heitkamp's post indicated her mother died after a battle with Parkinson's disease. Her father, Ray, died in 1982. Sunday was her parents' 66th wedding anniversary.

Doreen Heitkamp died at the St. Francis Nursing Home in Breckenridge, Minn., according to an obituary.

Read more: http://www.inforum.com/news/government-and-politics/4438903-heitkamps-mother-dies-after-battle-parkinsons-disease