After raising Michelle Obama in a modest South Side Chicago apartment and moving to the White House upon Barack Obama’s election, Marian Lois Shields Robinson, 86, passed away on Friday, her family said. Michelle Obama claimed in a post on X that her mother Marian Robinson was “my 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.”
Growing up at 7436 S. Euclid Ave., the former first lady frequently attributed her principles and discipline to her mother and her late father, Fraser. Fraser Robinson was a Democratic precinct leader and operator at the City of Chicago Water Filtration Plant near Navy Pier. He passed away in 1991. Mrs. Robinson returned to Chicago after residing in the White House, where she passed away on Friday. Funeral plans and the cause of death were not disclosed in the family statement that announced her passing.
Michelle Obama commented, “My mom has always been my rock and I’m so grateful for all the ways she continues to show up for my family,” on Mother’s Day this year. Over the years, she has taught me so much, and I am really fortunate that I get to pass that same wisdom down to my own girls.”
An exhibit in the Obama Presidential Center Museum, now under construction in Jackson Park, will be named in honor of Marian Robinson. In announcing the naming of the “Opening the White House” exhibit after her mother, Michelle Obama wrote, “Growing up with my mom always was an adventure. It entailed trips to the library as a toddler to learn the alphabet; the entire family piling into our car to go to the local drive-in — homemade chicken in hand.
It included Mom inviting family over for New Year’s Eve, raising a toast as the clock struck midnight. But above all else, my mother gave me nonstop, unconditional love 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. I simply wouldn’t be who I am today without her.
Born on July 29, 1937, Mrs. Robinson was raised in segregated Chicago together with her seven siblings. She was an adolescent when her parents divorced. Rebecca Jumper was a nurse’s assistant to her mother. Her father, Purnell Shields, often known as “Southside,” was a jazz enthusiast who was unable to obtain employment in construction or join a union due to his race. Her father awoke the family “by blasting jazz records,” instilling in her the belief that music could be found “even in the face of hardship,” according to a statement from the family.
Mrs. Robinson became a secretary, studying as a young woman to be a teacher. From the cramped apartment on Euclid, she taught her children to read at an early age, setting them on a course that led for both to Princeton University. During her White House years, Mrs. Robinson lived on the third floor, and her daughter, on especially fraught days, would go up a flight to find comfort with her mom. While living at the White House, she would often accompany Malia and Sasha to school.
