Marian Robinson, Michelle Obama’s mother and an anchor of the Obama family who moved into the White House and supported her two granddaughters as the young family adjusted to Washington, died Friday in Chicago. She was 86.
Her death was announced in a statement by Mrs. Obama, former President Barack Obama and other family members. No reason was given.
Ms. Robinson grew up on the South Side of Chicago and was known as a down-to-earth matriarch who became emotional ballast for her daughter and granddaughters, Malia and Sasha, as well as for Mr. Obama.
When Mr. Obama became the first black person to win the presidency in November 2008, he watched the election with his mother-in-law. Their hands were folded as they watched their future change.
But Mrs. Robinson remained largely the same. “Just show me how to use the washing machine and I’ll be good,” she said after moving into the White House, the Obamas recalled in their statement.
Mrs. Robinson was never comfortable with the amenities of the White House, preferring to eat dinner on a television tray in her third-floor suite. “The only guest she really wanted to meet was the pope,” the family said.
In addition to Mrs. Obama, her survivors include Mrs. Robinson’s son Craig and six grandchildren. Her husband, Fraser Robinson III, died in 1991.
Ms. Robinson’s move to Washington in January 2009 was initially only temporary to make it easier for her daughter and granddaughters to settle in. At the time, she was hesitant to embrace life in the White House bubble, but even as she resisted, she showed the determination and sense of humor that she had tried to instill in her children.
“In the end, I will do anything,” she told reporters at the time. “Maybe I’ll make a bit of a fuss, but I’ll be there.”
Ms. Robinson lived in her White House suite for most of President Obama’s eight years in office. She continued the duties she began during the first Obama presidential campaign, including enforcing bedtimes for her granddaughters, running their bathrooms and making sure they got to school on time. She eventually adapted, attending events at the Kennedy Center, hosting friends from Chicago and occasionally hiring a babysitter to watch the girls.
“The girls needed her,” the family statement said. “And in the end, she was our rock through everything.”
She had been a role model of support for her daughter. In her memoir, “Becoming,” Mrs. Obama wrote that she wanted to be both a career woman and a “perfect” mother, just as she had been.
“I had so much – education, a healthy sense of self-confidence, a large arsenal of ambition,” she wrote. “And I was smart enough to have my mother to thank for passing it on to me.”
Marian Lois Shields Robinson was born on July 29, 1937 in Chicago. Her father, Purnell Shields, had moved from Alabama to Chicago in the 1920s to escape the Jim Crow South. Her mother, Rebecca Jumper, was a nurse. As a young woman, Marian “quickly and madly fell in love with Fraser Robinson, another South Sider with the strength of a boxer and the cool of a jazz lover,” the family said.
The Robinsons married in 1960. Craig Robinson was born in 1962 and Michelle followed in 1964.
The Robinsons raised their children in a second-floor apartment on Euclid Avenue on the South Side, where they interacted with a rotating cast of extended family members, including a great-aunt who taught piano and lived in the first-floor apartment.
Mrs. Obama said her mother and other family members, including her older brother, protected her from much of the civil rights protests that rocked Chicago and much of the country in the late 1960s. Instead, she said, she grew up listening to the tinkling of piano keys rising from the floor below.
When Ms. Obama was in elementary school, Ms. Robinson asked to send her daughter to a gifted third grade class, an act of advocacy that Ms. Obama says helped transform her life.
As the Robinson children grew up, they said, she offered her support whether Craig “decided to leave a lucrative finance job to pursue his dream of being a basketball coach” or “when Michelle married a man crazy enough.” “to go into politics.”
Ms. Robinson was next to her daughter and granddaughters as they ran up to tour the White House residence for the first time after Mr. Obama won the election in November 2008.
Anita McBride, former chief of staff to First Lady Laura Bush, said that the Bush daughters Barbara and Jenna invited the Obama family for a tour of their new home.
Ms. McBride recalled in an interview that Ms. Robinson was quiet as the White House chief usher greeted the family. But when she was nervous, she didn’t show it.
“She followed her daughter and granddaughters on this adventure,” Ms. McBride said. “It’s a reminder that no matter how lofty it may seem and no matter how unattainable it may seem, anyone can live there and build a family life and a home for the family.”
Michael Levenson contributed reporting.
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2024-06-01 09:35:03
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