Marian Robinson, Former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Mother, Dies At 86

Marian Robinson, mother to former First Lady Michelle Obama, has died at age 86.

The tragic news was confirmed through a statement from the family. A cause of death was not shared.

“She passed peacefully this morning, and right now, none of us are quite sure how exactly we’ll move on without her,” the statement reads. “We will all miss her greatly, and we wish she were here to offer us some perspective, to mend our heavy hearts with a laugh and a dose of her wisdom. There was and will be only one Marian Robinson. In our sadness, we are lifted up by the extraordinary gift of her life. And we will spend the rest of ours trying to live up to her example.”

Robinson was affectionately known as the country’s first grandmother during the Obama administration. In 2009, she left her hometown of Chicago to help care for her granddaughters, Malia and Sasha, after former President Barack Obama took office.

“I felt like this was going to be a very hard life for both [Barack and Michelle],” she explained in a CBS interview at the time. “And I was worried about their safety, and I was worried about my grandkids. That’s what got me to move to D.C.”

After he left office, Robinson returned to Chicago. According to the statement, she spent her time “reconnecting with longtime friends, trading wise-cracks, traveling, and enjoying a good glass of wine.”

Robinson was born in Chicago on July 29, 1937. She was married to Fraser Robinson, who died in 1991 from multiple sclerosis and was the mother of Michelle and Craig.

As a mother, she was considered to be “our backstop, a calm and nonjudgmental witness to our triumphs and stumbles.” As a mother-in-law, she was labeled “the best anyone could hope for.” As a grandmother, she helped in making her grandchildren feel loved and inspired.

The former president also called Robinson “the least pretentious person I know,” noting, “Rather than hobnobbing with Oscar winners or Nobel laureates, she preferred spending her time upstairs with a TV tray, in the room outside her bedroom with big windows that looked out at the Washington Monument. The only guest she made a point of asking to meet was the Pope.”

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For Mother’s Day, the former First Lady revealed an exhibit at the Obama Presidential Center Museum in Chicago would be named after her mother. 

“In so many ways she fostered in me a deep sense of confidence in who I was and who I could be by teaching me how to think for myself, how to use my own voice, and how to understand my own worth,” said Michelle in the video announcement. “I simply wouldn’t be who I am today without my mom.”

Robinson is survived by her family, daughter Michelle, son-in-law Barack Obama, son Craig Robinson, daughter-in-law Kelly; and grandchildren: Avery, Leslie, Malia, Sasha, Austin, and Aaron.

VIBE sends our deepest condolences to the family at this time.