Marian Lois Shields Robinson, mother of former First Lady Michelle Obama, passed away on Friday at the age of 86.
Her family members, including Michelle and her brother Craig Robinson, announced her passing in a statement, telling her story via a post on the Medium publishing platform.
“As a mother, she was our backstop, a calm and nonjudgmental witness to our triumphs and stumbles. She was always, always there, welcoming us back home no matter how far we had journeyed, with that deep and abiding love,” the statement read.
My mom 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. We wanted to offer some reflections on her remarkable life: https://t.co/F7T6q625PC
— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) May 31, 2024
Shields was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago. She studied teaching and then worked as a secretary. In 1960, she married Fraser Robinson, and they had two children: a son, Craig, in 1962 and a daughter, Michelle, in 1964. The family lived in a small apartment on Euclid Avenue. Fraser died in 1991, a year and a half before Michelle would marry Barack Obama.
When Barack ascended to the presidency, Shields, a lifelong Chicagoan, transitioned to life in the executive mansion in Washington D.C. to assist in raising her granddaughters, Malia and Sasha.
“We needed her. The girls needed her. And she ended up being our rock through it all. She relished her role as a grandmother to Malia and Sasha…,” the family wrote.
Marian Robinson views 2009 Inaugural Parade with Malia and Sasha Obama (Public Domain).
Though her son-in-law had become the leader of the free world, the trappings of his position never appealed to her.
According to the statement, “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 only guest she made a point of asking to meet was the Pope. Over those eight years, she made great friends with the ushers and butlers, the folks who make the White House a home.”
The cause of Robinson’s death was not immediately known.
She is survived by her children, her son and daughter-in-law, and six grandchildren.
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