When Robinson relocated from her hometown of Chicago to assist in caring for her granddaughters during the Obama administration, she became a mainstay of the White House.
According to a family statement provided to NBC News, Marian Robinson, the mother of former First Lady Michelle Obama, passed away. Robinson was eighty-six.
According to the family statement, “She passed away quietly this morning, and at this time, none of us is quite sure how exactly we’ll move on without her.”
The family statement comes from Marian Robinson’s grandchildren, Avery, Leslie, Malia, Sasha, Austin, and Aaron; Craig Robinson and his wife, Kelly; and Michelle and Barack Obama.
Following her son-in-law Barack Obama’s victory in the 2008 presidential election, Robinson gained national recognition as the nation’s first grandmother. Despite keeping a low profile, she was a mainstay in the White House during his eight years in office. She went to concerts in the East Room, occasionally traveled abroad, and attended holiday gatherings. However, she spent most of her time with her granddaughters, Malia and Sasha.
After spending her entire life in Chicago, Robinson consented to relocate to Washington, D.C., in 2009 to live in the White House residence and assist in caring for her seven- and ten-year-old granddaughters.
Later, in a CBS interview, she remarked of her daughter and son-in-law, “I felt like this was going to be a very hard life for both of them.” Additionally, I was concerned about my grandchildren’s safety. That’s what led me to relocate to Washington, D.C.
Robinson’s family said in a statement on Friday that she accepted the departure from Chicago after receiving “a healthy nudge.”
“She was necessary to us. She was needed by the girls. And she proved to be our pillar of support during it all,” they remarked.
“She enjoyed being a grandmother…. They added, “She made it plain that she agreed with her ‘grandbabies’ in believing that their parents were too damn strict, even though she enforced whatever rules we had set for the house regarding bedtime, watching TV, and eating candy.”
“We knew Mrs. Marian Robinson as a dedicated mother and grandmother with a fierce and unconditional love of her family,” President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden said in a statement issued on Saturday. With each gentle grin or tender hug she gave us, we were blessed with friendship and experienced that love for ourselves.”
“The entire Biden family sends its deepest love to Michelle, Craig, Barack, Kelly, and the six irrepressible grandchildren whom she helped to raise and so loved, and in whom her kind and gentle spirit lives on,” said the statement.
Born in 1937 in Chicago, Robinson grew up in the South Side of the city, raising her son Craig and daughter. Fraser Robinson, her spouse, passed away from multiple sclerosis in 1991.
His mother-in-law was once referred to by the former president as “the least pretentious person I know.” In fact, Robinson claimed in the CBS interview that she persuaded White House residence staff to allow her to do her own laundry, stating that it was a “huge adjustment” they were waiting on.
“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 family stated in a statement on Friday. “The only guest she made a point of asking to meet was the Pope.”
Robinson was credited by the former president with keeping his daughters grounded during their White House upbringing.
He stated in an interview on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” that “she’s down to earth and she doesn’t understand all the fuss.”
Michelle Obama and her mother had a close relationship. At the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Robinson narrated the biographical video that introduced her daughter. “My saying is when I grow up, I would like to be like Michelle Obama,” Robinson added after leaving the White House.
Michelle Obama honored her mother on Mother’s Day a few weeks ago by announcing that an exhibit at the Obama Presidential Center Museum in Chicago would bear her name.
In a video announcement, the former first lady stated, “She taught me how to think for myself, how to use my own voice, and how to understand my own worth, and in so many ways she fostered in me a deep sense of confidence in who I was and who I could be.” “Without my mother, I just wouldn’t be who I am today.”
“There was and will be only one Marian Robinson,” the family said in a statement issued Friday. “The extraordinary gift of her life lifts us up in our sadness.” And we’ll try to follow her example for the rest of our lives.”
