The mother of Michelle Obama, Marian Robinson, died early Friday morning.
She was 86 years old.
In a statement, Robinson’s family said that he died peacefully.
“As a mother, she was our backstop, a calm and nonjudgmental witness to our triumphs and stumbles,” the statement said.
“She was always, always there, welcoming us back home no matter how far we had journeyed, with that deep and abiding love.”
Robinson was known as the first grandmother in the US after Barack Obama, her son-in-law, became president in 2008.
Michelle Obama said in a different statement that her mother was her rock.
She wrote on Twitter, “Always there for whatever I needed.”
“She was the same steady backstop for our entire family, and we are heartbroken to share she passed away today.”
Robinson was an important part of the White House during both of Obama’s terms, but she didn’t draw too much attention to herself.
During her trips abroad, she went to holiday events and concerts in the East Room.
Her main focus, though, was on her granddaughters Sasha and Malia.
“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,” the family wrote in a note.
“However, we take comfort in the knowledge that she is back in the arms of her loving Fraser, that she has moved her TV tray next to his recliner, and that they are raising their glasses to their highballs while she tells him stories about this crazy, wonderful ride.” She seriously misses him.”
Robinson had spent her whole life in Chicago, but she agreed to move to Washington, DC, in 2009 to help take care of her young granddaughters in the White House.
We had to have her. She was needed by the women. “She became our rock through it all,” the family wrote in a tribute.
“She relished her role as a grandmother to Malia and Sasha — just as she doted on Avery, Leslie, Austin, and Aaron.”
Robinson was born in Chicago in 1937 and grew up on the South Side of the city. She also raised her two children, Michelle and Craig Robinson, there.
They got married in 1960, and he died in 1991 from multiple sclerosis.
Robinson had a hard time getting used to being waited on when he moved from the South Side to the White House.
A lot of the time, she had to beg her coworkers to let her do her own work, like laundry.
“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,” family members said.
“The only guest she made a point of asking to meet was the Pope.”
SHARING TRIBUTES
Billie Jean King, who won 39 Grand Slams, was one of many people who wrote tributes to Robinson.
“Sending our deepest condolences to the Obama family today upon the passing of Marian Robinson, the Former First Lady’s mother,” King told us.
“I had the chance to spend some time with her alone at the Arthur Ashe Kids Day at the US Open in 2013.
“May she rest in peace.”
The actress Mia Farrow wrote, “My family sends our love.” It breaks our hearts to hear about your loss.
“When you invited me to perform at the White House in 2009, I was too scared to look any of you in the eye from the stage,” Lin-Manuel Miranda revealed on Instagram.
“I didn’t feel calm and ready to go until I looked over and saw your mom’s bright smile.
Not being able to believe she’s gone. We will be praying for you and your family in the coming days and weeks.