Michelle Obama’s mother, Marian Robinson, passed away at the age of 86.
Her family released a statement stating that Robinson passed away on Friday morning “peacefully.”
Robinson was a well-known presence at the White House from 2009 to 2017, the whole eight years of Barack Obama’s presidency.
The majority of that time was devoted to caring for her two grandchildren, Michelle and Barack Obama’s kids, Malia and Sasha.
Mrs. Obama spoke to her mother as her “rock, always there for whatever I needed” in a message that was published on X, the former Twitter.
She commented, “We are heartbroken to share she passed away today. She was the same steady backstop for our entire family.”
Mr. Obama said that “there was and will be only one Marian Robinson” in a different tweet.
He went on, “The incredible gift of her life lifts us up in our sadness.” “And we’ll strive to follow her example for the remainder of our lives.”
The reason of death was not disclosed in any greater detail.
Robinson, who was born in 1937, spent the most of her childhood in Chicago as one of seven children until deciding to go to Washington, DC, after President Obama’s election.
She first pursued her career as a secretary while pursuing her studies to become a teacher. Along with her husband Frasier Robinson, she raised Craig and Michelle on Chicago’s South Side.
The Obama statement said, “At every turn, as our families went down paths none of us could have predicted, she remained our refuge from the storm.”
“She was there, holding his hand, on Election Night in 2008, when the news broke that Barack would soon shoulder the weight of the world.”
Robinson was seated with her son-in-law on a couch as they watched the results come in, a photograph captured on the evening in 2008 when her son-in-law became the first African-American president of the United States.
The letter went on to say that Robinson had moved into the White House after a “healthy nudge” from Barack and Michelle Obama, who “needed her” for their girls.
Later on, she mentioned how she insisted on doing her own washing at that location.
Robinson said that she feared her daughter and son-in-law will have a “very hard life” if they stay in Washington in an interview with CBS, the BBC’s US partner.
She went on, “And I was concerned for their safety.” “I was concerned about my grandchildren. I moved to Washington, DC, because of it.
Until she boarded Air Force One to France in 2009 with the Obamas, the longtime Chicagoan had never left the country.
Robinson, who Mr. Obama previously referred to as “the least pretentious person” he knew, said that having White House personnel take care of her needs was a “huge adjustment.”
According to the family statement, “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, rather than hobnobbing with Oscar winners or Nobel laureates.”
“The Pope was the only guest she specifically requested to meet,” it continued.
The rest of her family envied her independence because of her solitude. “She would often slip out of the White House on her own and visit with friends,” top Obama adviser David Axelrod told CNN on Friday.
He went on, “She wasn’t really looking for attention.”
A few weeks before to Robinson’s passing, on Mother’s Day, Mrs. Obama said that an exhibit at the Obama Presidential Center Museum in Chicago will bear her name.
“She taught me to think for myself, which in so many ways helped me develop a deep sense of confidence in who I was and who I could be,” Mrs. Obama said in a video statement.
“Without my mother, I just wouldn’t be who I am today.”
