Marian Shields Robinson, the mother of former First Lady Michelle Obama, has died, her family said in a statement Friday. She was 86.
“She passed peacefully this morning, and right now, none of us are quite sure how exactly we'll move on without her,” the family statement said.
The statement, signed by Mrs. Robinson’s children, their spouses, and grandchildren, did not include the cause of death.
Mrs. Robinson was born in Chicago in 1937 and grew up in the city’s South Side. Early in her life, she attended two years of teaching college before working as a bank secretary.
After marrying Fraser Robinson in 1960, she became a stay-at-home mother and, together with her husband, raised their daughter, Michelle, and son, Craig Robinson. Fraser Robinson died in 1991 from multiple sclerosis.
Having lived in Chicago her entire life, Mrs. Robinson moved into the White House after her son-in-law, former President Barrack Obama, won the 2008 presidential election. She attended holiday events and joined the first family on their overseas trips, but mostly spent time helping take care of her granddaughters, Sasha and Malia Obama, who were seven and 10 years old, respectively, at the time they moved into the executive mansion.
In their statement Friday, Mrs. Robinson’s family members said she agreed to start over in Washington with “a healthy nudge” from the Obama couple.
“We needed her. The girls needed her. And she ended up being our rock through it all,” the statement read.
“She relished her role as a grandmother,” it added. “Although she enforced whatever household rules we‘d set for bedtime, watching TV, or eating candy, she made clear that she sided with her ’grandbabies’ in thinking that their parents were too darn strict.”
At the White House, She participated in some events such as the annual Easter Egg Roll and National Christmas Tree lighting. In 2009, she joined the Obamas on a trip to France, Russia, Ghana, and Italy, where she met Pope Benedict XVI.
According to the family, Mrs. Robinson preferred to stay upstairs and not hobnob with the presidential mansion’s many high-profile visitors. The only guest she “made a point of asking to meet” was Pope Francis, who visited the White House in 2015.
Following the eight-year Obama presidency, Mrs. Robinson returned to Chicago and remained active in the family’s life, the family said.
In a homage posted on X, Mrs. Obama called her mother her “rock, 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,” she wrote.
Just a few weeks ago, Mrs. Obama paid tribute to her mother on Mother’s Day by announcing that an exhibit at the Obama Presidential Center Museum in Chicago will be named in her honor.
“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,” she said in a video announcement. “I simply wouldn’t be who I am today without my mom.”
Mrs. Robinson was survived by her children, her son and daughter-in-law, and six grandchildren.
“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,” the family said.
