BREAKING: President Trump’s older sister, retired judge Maryanne Trump Barry, passes away at 86 in her apartment

There were no signs of trauma, and the Medical Examiner has yet to announce the cause of death. She was a retired judge and had been nominated to the federal bench by Ronald Reagan in 1983. She thanked her brother for his help in attaining that nomination.

"There’s no question Donald helped me get on the bench," Barry said. She was also recommended for the post by then-New Jersey Thomas Kean. President Clinton nominated her to the US Court of Appeals in 1999, and served in that position until she became an inactive judge in 2016.

Barry chose to stay primarily out of the public eye. She retired from her position as a federal judge in 2019 when she was 82-years-old. She was born in 1937 and is the oldest sibling of the five Trump brothers and sisters.

She attended Mount Holyoke College and earned a masters degree from Columbia University in 1962. She attended Hofstra University and earned a law degree several years after the birth of her son, David Desmond. Barry had David with her first husband, and later married John Barry. He passed in 2000.

Of her first position in law, she said "My first job out of law school was as one of two women assistant US attorneys in an office of 63 US attorneys, and the first woman to do criminal work appearing only before male judges. Scared? Every day of my life."

"I knew better even as a child than to even attempt to compete with Donald," she said once. "I wouldn't have been able to win. He was building models when he was very young. Huge buildings."

Trump spoke about his sister after the dust-up with his comments on Megyn Kelly. "She called me to say she’s very proud. She said, ‘Just be yourself.’ Of course, I don’t know if that’s good advice, but she said, ‘Just be yourself and you do well, really well.’ ”