It was a blow of unimaginable proportions to Stephen Colbert’s family.
Stephen Colbert’s upbringing was overseen by his mother, Lorna Colbert. When he was just one of eleven children, his father, James William Colbert Jr., and two of his brothers were killed in a plane crash. He was the youngest of the eleven.
After the passing of Stephen’s father, Colbert’s mother was responsible for raising Stephen and his siblings on her own. James William Colbert Jr. was an immunologist at Yale University and served as the dean of the medical school throughout his career there. The mother of Stephen was a housewife for most of her adult life.