There has never been an investor like Warren Buffett. The boy who delivered newspapers on a Washington DC paper route at thirteen, sold chewing gum and Coca-Cola door-to-door at six, and bought his first stock at eleven, today stands as the most successful long-term investor in the history of capitalism. As chairman of Berkshire Hathaway for nearly six decades, he has compounded shareholder value at a rate that no other corporate executive has ever matched. He still lives in the same modest Omaha house he bought in 1958 for $31,500. Behind every annual letter to Berkshire shareholders lies a deeply American family story — a Nebraska congressman father, an unconventional first wife who quietly arranged his second marriage, three remarkable children who chose philanthropy and music over business, and a Latvian-born partner who has shared his life for nearly fifty years.

The Family's Roots: Omaha and the Nebraska Prairie

The Buffett family belongs to the long line of Nebraska-based middle-American Protestant families that arrived in the Great Plains in the second half of the nineteenth century. The family has lived in Omaha continuously since 1869, when Warren's great-grandfather Sidney Homan Buffett opened a grocery store on the corner of 14th and Williams that operated under the Buffett name for nearly a century.

Warren himself was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on 30 August 1930, the second of three children in a household that had survived the worst years of the Great Depression by living modestly and reading widely. The Buffetts have never left Omaha. Warren still lives in the same five-bedroom home he bought in 1958, and works from the same unassuming office at Kiewit Plaza that Berkshire has occupied since the early 1960s.

His Father: Howard Buffett — The Nebraska Stockbroker and Four-Term Congressman

Howard Homan Buffett, born 13 April 1903, was a stockbroker and a four-term Republican Congressman representing Nebraska's 2nd congressional district. After working at the Union State Bank in Omaha through the early years of the Depression, he founded the Buffett-Falk & Co. investment firm in 1931 — the year after Warren was born — to keep the family in steady income while bank stocks were collapsing. Howard served in the US House of Representatives from 1943 to 1949 and again from 1951 to 1953, and is remembered in libertarian and small-government circles for his uncompromising views on monetary policy, federal spending, and the gold standard.

He was, by Warren's accounts, a man of complete integrity and the most important influence on his son's character. Warren has said that his father gave him the single greatest gift any parent can give a child: unconditional love and unconditional belief.

Howard died on 30 April 1964, at the age of 61. Warren has said the death was the hardest thing that ever happened to him.

His Mother: Leila Stahl Buffett — The Newspaperman's Daughter

Leila Stahl Buffett, born 1904, came from a family of Nebraska newspaper publishers — her father owned a small-town Nebraska paper, the West Point Cuming County Democrat, and Leila grew up around printing presses and editorial pages. She married Howard in 1925 and dedicated herself to raising their three children. She lived a long life and died in 1996 at the age of 92.

Warren's relationship with his mother was the more complicated of his two parental relationships; Leila is widely reported to have struggled with what would today be called severe mood disorders, and the household carried a tension that Warren has acknowledged in interviews. Both his sisters have spoken about it more openly.

His Sisters: Doris and Bertie Buffett

Warren has two sisters.

Doris Eleanor Buffett, the eldest of the three siblings, was born in 1928 and lived until August 2020. She built her own career and identity as a major philanthropist, founding the Sunshine Lady Foundation through which she gave away most of her personal Berkshire stake — over $200 million — in lifetime grants. She made a particular focus of women's prisons, domestic-violence shelters, and second-chance education for incarcerated people.

Roberta "Bertie" Buffett Elliott, born in 1933, is the youngest sibling. She has been a long-time philanthropist focused on Northwestern University and the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs there. She lives in Carmel, California, with her husband.

His First Wife: Susan Thompson Buffett — The Folk-Singer Who Arranged His Second Marriage

Susan Thompson Buffett, born 1932 in Omaha, was a folk singer, civil-rights activist, and patron of the arts. She was the daughter of a psychology professor at the University of Omaha; she grew up two doors down from the Buffett family home. She and Warren were married on 19 April 1952.

The marriage was, by every public account, both deeply loving and deeply unusual. Susan was the warm centre of the Buffett household for the first 25 years of the marriage — raising the three children, hosting an endlessly open home, performing as a singer in Omaha and later in San Francisco, and bringing into Warren's life a sociability he did not naturally possess.

In 1977, Susan moved alone to San Francisco to pursue her singing career, while remaining formally married to Warren. Before leaving, she introduced Warren to Astrid Menks, a young Latvian-born waitress at the French Café in Omaha, and arranged for Astrid to begin looking after him. Astrid moved into the Buffett home and remained there. The three of them — Warren, Susan, and Astrid — would for the next twenty-seven years send Christmas cards signed by all three of them. Susan remained Warren's wife until her death on 29 July 2004 from oral cancer.

His Second Wife: Astrid Menks Buffett

Astrid Menks was born in Latvia and moved with her family to the United States as a young woman, eventually settling in Omaha. She worked as a waitress at the French Café in Omaha's Old Market district before becoming Warren's companion in 1978. After Susan's death in 2004, she and Warren married on his 76th birthday — 30 August 2006 — in a small ceremony in his daughter Susie's home. They remain married. Astrid has stayed largely out of the spotlight, and continues to live with Warren in the same Omaha house.

Their Three Children: Susie, Howard, and Peter

Warren and Susan had three children together, all born in the 1950s, all of whom built lives outside the Berkshire Hathaway business and all of whom now run substantial philanthropic foundations.

Susan "Susie" Alice Buffett, the eldest, was born in 1953. She is the chair of the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation (her late mother's namesake foundation), one of the largest private grant-makers in the United States, focused on reproductive rights and abortion access globally. She lives in Omaha and has chaired Girls Inc. and other women's organisations.

Howard Graham Buffett, born in 1954, is a farmer, photographer, and philanthropist. He runs his own farm in central Illinois, has documented food security and conflict zones around the world as a photographer, served as a county sheriff in Illinois, and has been designated as the non-executive chairman of Berkshire Hathaway who will succeed Warren after his retirement — a role intended to preserve the corporate culture rather than to run the business operationally.

Peter Andrew Buffett, born in 1958, is a musician and composer. He has scored film and stage work — including parts of the 1990 film Dances with Wolves — and runs the NoVo Foundation with his wife Jennifer, focused on adolescent girls and social-emotional learning.

The Buffett Family Tree at a Glance

Family Origins

  • Nebraska-American Protestant family
  • In Omaha since 1869 (great-grandfather Sidney Homan Buffett's grocery store)

Parents

  • Father: Howard Homan Buffett (13 April 1903 – 30 April 1964) — stockbroker; founder, Buffett-Falk & Co.; US Congressman (R-NE), 1943–49 and 1951–53
  • Mother: Leila Stahl Buffett (1904 – 1996) — newspaperman's daughter

Siblings

  • Doris Eleanor Buffett (1928 – August 2020) — philanthropist, Sunshine Lady Foundation
  • Warren Edward Buffett (b. 30 August 1930) — chairman, Berkshire Hathaway
  • Roberta "Bertie" Buffett Elliott (b. 1933) — philanthropist; Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, Northwestern

Warren Buffett

  • Born 30 August 1930, Omaha NE
  • Education: Woodrow Wilson High School, DC; Rose Hill, Omaha; University of Nebraska–Lincoln (B.S. Business, 1950); Columbia Business School (M.S. Economics, 1951, under Benjamin Graham)
  • Founded Buffett Partnership Ltd. (1956)
  • Acquired control of Berkshire Hathaway (1965)
  • Chairman, Berkshire Hathaway (1965–present); retired CEO in 2024, succeeded by Greg Abel
  • Signatory and co-founder of The Giving Pledge; has pledged 99% of his wealth to charity

First Wife: Susan Thompson Buffett

  • Born 1932, Omaha; folk singer, civil-rights activist
  • Married Warren on 19 April 1952
  • Remained legally his wife until her death on 29 July 2004

Second Wife: Astrid Menks Buffett

  • Born in Latvia
  • Companion from 1978; married Warren on his 76th birthday, 30 August 2006

Children (with Susan)

  • Susan "Susie" Alice Buffett (b. 1953) — chair, Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation
  • Howard Graham Buffett (b. 1954) — farmer, photographer, philanthropist; designated non-executive chairman successor at Berkshire
  • Peter Andrew Buffett (b. 1958) — musician, composer; NoVo Foundation co-chair

The Berkshire Hathaway Story in One Paragraph

Warren bought his first share of stock at eleven; built the Buffett Partnership at twenty-six; took control of a struggling New England textile manufacturer called Berkshire Hathaway in 1965; used its cash flow to acquire insurance company National Indemnity in 1967; and from that single move spent fifty-eight years compounding Berkshire's book value at an average annual rate of roughly 20 percent — turning a $1,000 investment in 1965 into more than $30 million today. Along the way he acquired GEICO outright, bought a controlling stake in The Washington Post and later The Buffalo News, bought See's Candies, BNSF Railway, Dairy Queen, Duracell, Precision Castparts, and built one of the largest insurance, energy, and consumer-goods conglomerates in the world. He retired as CEO in 2024.

What the Buffett Family Story Teaches Us

The Buffett story is a reminder that great wealth, in the right hands, becomes great responsibility — and that great families, even more than great companies, are built across generations through choices about character. A Nebraska Congressman father who refused to take a pay raise. A folk-singer wife who quietly arranged for someone else to look after her husband when she left for San Francisco. Three children who built independent lives in philanthropy, farming, and music rather than in business. A second wife from Latvia who has never been in a single magazine cover story. A pledge to give 99 percent of one of the largest fortunes ever assembled to charity.

For every family — large or small, famous or otherwise — the Buffett story carries the same lesson. The names matter. The grocery store in 1869 Omaha matters. The newspaperman grandfather matters. The folk-singer wife who arranged the second marriage matters. Write them down. They are the texture of who your own family really is.

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