Marian Robinson, mom of Michelle Obama, dies at 86

Marian Robinson, the mom of former first girl Michelle Obama, has died on the age of 86, her household introduced Friday.

“She handed peacefully this morning, and proper now, none of us are fairly positive how precisely we’ll transfer on with out her,” the assertion learn.

Robinson was born in 1937 and grew up on Chicago’s South Aspect, one in every of seven youngsters. She skilled as a trainer earlier than working as a secretary. She married Fraser Robinson, and so they had two youngsters collectively, Michelle and Craig Robinson. Fraser died in 1991.

When her son-in-law, former President Barack Obama, received the presidency in 2008, she was coaxed by the household into leaving Chicago and transferring into the White Home.

“We wanted her,” the household’s assertion learn Friday. “The women wanted her. And she or he ended up being our rock via all of it.”

In a 2018 interview with “CBS Mornings” alongside her daughter, she described the transfer as a “large adjustment,” however felt she wanted to do it to assist look after her granddaughters, Sasha and Malia Obama.  

“I felt like this was going to be a really arduous life for each of them, and I … was fearful about their security. And I used to be fearful about my grandkids,” Robinson advised “CBS Mornings.”

Nevertheless, Michelle Obama mentioned her mom rapidly turned a “beloved determine” within the White Home.

“She had a stream of individuals,” Obama mentioned again in 2018. “The butlers, the housekeepers. They’d all cease by … Grandma’s room was just like the confessional. You understand, everybody would go there and simply unload, you understand? After which they’d depart. Individuals nonetheless go to with mother in Chicago.”

Following Obama’s second time period, Robinson returned to Chicago, “reconnecting with longtime mates, buying and selling wise-cracks, touring, and having fun with glass of wine,” her household mentioned.

In that 2018 interview, she mentioned she didn’t miss the White Home, simply the individuals, “as a result of they have been like household to me.”

“As a mom, she was our backstop, a peaceful and nonjudgmental witness to our triumphs and stumbles,” the household mentioned Friday. “She was all the time, all the time there, welcoming us again residence irrespective of how far we had journeyed, with that deep and abiding love.”

Jessica Kegu contributed to this report.