Jimmy Buffett’s sister, Laurie Buffett McGuane, has revealed that she and her famous brother were both diagnosed with cancer, and the two siblings supported each other during their illnesses.

“Jimmy and I were diagnosed with cancer about the same time,” Buffett McGuane, 74, said in an interview with People magazine. “It was four years ago and Jimmy was actually diagnosed first. When Jimmy found out (I had cancer) he brought the whole family and the dogs to Montana to be with me.”

Buffett, a musician known worldwide for his soft-rock songs and “beach bum” persona, died on Sept. 1 at age 76 after a four-year battle with Merkel Cell skin cancer. Buffett McGuane — who lives in Montana with her husband, writer Thomas McGuane — told People she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, had surgery at Duke University in North Carolina and continued successful treatment in Montana.

“Jimmy and I became closer because of our cancers. We talked before and after our scans,” Buffett McGuane said. “We shared a club that nobody wants to join. I am thunderstruck that Jimmy didn’t make it.”

She’s one of Buffett’s two sisters, known as “Lala” to the family. Their other sibling, Lucy Buffett, 69, known as “Lulu,” is a well-known restaurateur on the Gulf Coast. In the Buffett family, Laurie and Lucy referred to their brother as “Bubba.” The three grew up in Mobile as the children of James Delaney Buffett Jr. and Mary Loraine Peets Buffett, employees of the Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company.

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Buffett McGuane said she and Lucy were among the family members by Buffett’s side when he died. She also posted on social media about his final days, sharing a childhood photo and more.

“Lulu and I were just with Bubba,” McGuane said Sept. 1 via Instagram. “We talked about our childhood where only siblings can relate. I told him I’ve know him longer than anyone on the planet. He smiled with those twinkling blue eyes and squeezed my hand.”

In his own interview with People, Thomas McGuane said Buffett’s spirits remained high until his death.

“He was always high-spirited, fun-loving, hard working and creative,” McGuane, 83, said. “It is remarkable to be able to say that he remained the same during the last month of this life. His sense of humor was fully intact. God bless him for keeping himself that way.”

Buffett, a Mississippi native, moved to Alabama as a child with his family. He attended St. Ignatius Catholic School in Mobile and graduated high school in 1964 from McGill Institute for Boys. He enrolled at Auburn University before continuing his education at Pearl River Community College and then graduating in 1969 from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Buffett learned to play guitar in college, busked on the streets of New Orleans and played in Gulf Coast bars during his early years as a singer-songwriter. Mobile remained a touchstone for him throughout his life, and he returned to Alabama for concerts during his long, high-profile career.

Buffett released 27 studio albums, received multiple Grammy nominations, wrote New York Times bestselling books and became one of the top touring artists in the world, thanks to his loyal legion of “Parrothead” fans. Among his extensive catalog of songs is a beloved handful of tunes known as “The Big 8″: “Margaritaville,” “Come Monday,” “Fins,” “Volcano,” “A Pirate Looks at Forty,” “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” “Why Don’t We Get Drunk” and “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes.”

“I think he credits a lot of his success to his Gulf Coast roots,” Lucy Buffett said in a 2012 interview with AL.com. “They gave him the foundation that’s sustained his success. You can’t grow up around water and not develop an almost cellular longing to be out in a boat on that water. So many of his songs resonate with his love of exploring the ocean. That notion was born in his youth on Mobile Bay, Dauphin Island, Gulf Shores and the Mississippi barrier islands.”

Buffett appears in a new documentary about Key West in the 1970s, “All That Is Sacred.” Variety posted a trailer for the 34-minute movie, which recently premiered at the Telluride Film Festival. The film, directed by Scott Ballew, includes footage of Buffett, McGuane and “a loose collective of wild but serious writers in Key West that also included men of letters like Jim Harrison, Richard Brautigan and Russell Chatham,” Variety says.

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