Marian Robinson’s move to Washington, in January 2009, and stayed for most of the eight years President Barack Obama was in office. Credit…Mandel Ngan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Dear Commons Community,

Marian Robinson, Michelle Obama’s mother and an anchor of the Obama family who moved into the White House and provided stability for her two granddaughters as the young family adjusted to Washington, died yesterday in Chicago. She was 86.

Her death was announced in a statement by Mrs. Obama, former President Barack Obama and other family members. It did not give a cause.  Here is an excerpt from her New York Times obituary.

Raised on the South Side of Chicago, Ms. Robinson was known as a down-to-earth matriarch who became an emotional ballast for her daughter and granddaughters, Malia and Sasha, but also for Mr. Obama.

When Mr. Obama became the first Black man to win the presidency in November 2008, he watched the returns alongside his mother-in-law. Their hands were clasped as they watched their future change.

But Mrs. Robinson stayed much the same. “Just show me how to work the washing machine and I’m good,” she said after moving into the White House, the Obamas recalled in their statement.

Mrs. Robinson was never comfortable with the trappings of the White House and much preferred to take her dinner on a TV tray in her third-floor suite. “The only guest she made a point of asking 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.

Mrs. Robinson’s move to Washington, in January 2009, was said at first to be temporary, to help her daughter and granddaughters adjust. At the time, she was hesitant to commit to a life inside a White House bubble, but even as she resisted, she revealed the resolve, and the sense of humor, that she had tried to instill in her children.

“In the end, I’ll do whatever,” she told reporters at the time. “I might fuss a little, but I’ll be there.”

Mrs. Robinson resided in her White House suite for most of President Obama’s eight years in office. She continued the duties she had started during the first Obama presidential campaign, including enforcing bedtimes for her granddaughters, running their baths and making sure they got to school on time. She eventually adjusted, 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 she ended up being our rock through it all.”

To her daughter, she had been a model of support. In her memoir, “Becoming,” Mrs. Obama wrote that she had wanted to be both a career woman and a “perfect” mother, like her own had been.

“I had so much — an education, a healthy sense of self, a deep arsenal of ambition,” she wrote. “And I was wise enough to credit my mother, in particular, with instilling it in me.”

Mrs. Robinson was a class act!

Tony

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