Michelle Obama’s Mother, Marian Robinson, Dead at 86

Robinson died 'peacefully' on Friday, her family announced

Michelle Obama’s mother, Marian Robinson, has died.

Robinson, the mother of the former first lady, died on Friday, May 31, her family told NBC News in a statement. She was 86 years old.

Following the news, Michelle shared a message on X, formerly Twitter, remembering her mother.

"My mom Marian Robinson was my rock, always there for whatever I needed," she wrote. "She was the same steady backstop for our entire family, and we are heartbroken to share she passed away today."

Related: All About Michelle Obama's Parents, Fraser and Marian Robinson

“She passed peacefully this morning, and right now, none of us are quite sure how exactly we’ll move on without her," NBC's statement read.

It added that the lifelong Chicago resident left her hometown with "a healthy nudge" when her daughter moved into the White House with former President Barack Obama after he won the 2008 election.

"We needed her. The girls needed her. And she ended up being our rock through it all," the family said.

"She relished her role as a grandmother. ... And 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."

The statement, which was shared by Michelle and Barack; Michelle's brother Craig Robinson and his wife, Kelly; and Marian Robinson’s grandchildren, Avery, Leslie, Malia, Sasha, Austin and Aaron, continued, "There was and will be only one Marian Robinson.”

"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."

Barack, 62, also expressed his condolences on her passing in a separate statement.

“There was and will be only one Marian Robinson. 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 former president wrote in a tweet.

Michelle’s father, Fraser Robinson, died in 1991. The author has often talked about her childhood and the lessons that both parents taught her.

Speaking to Chicago’s ABC 7 in 2022, the Princeton University and Harvard Law School graduate said she came from humble beginnings but that didn’t stop her from knowing her worth.

“We were poor. We lived in a small house, but what they gave us was a feeling of importance, a belief that our voices mattered at a very young age, a sense of understanding, of pushing through, resilience,” she said.

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That same year, Michelle told NPR that even as a young child, her parents taught her responsibility — buying her and her brother alarm clocks at 5 years old and allowing them to walk to school on their own.

“And what that does for a kid - when your parent trust you, it encourages you. It tells you that if my mom thinks I can do this, that I must be capable,” Michelle said.

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