Marian Robinson Cause Of Death: A Tribute To The Obama Family Matriarch

Marian Robinson shunned the spotlight and rarely gave interviews – her daughter, Michelle Obama, once described her as a “sweet, witty companion who doesn’t need the limelight”.

But it was that privacy, tightly guarded by the Obamas, that afforded Robinson the rare luxury of being able to live relatively freely in the White House and without the usual scrutiny that follows every first family – while still enjoying the perks of being the president’s mother-in-law.

Growing up in Chicago, she may never have dreamed that her daughter would one day be the first lady of the United States. On election night, holding Barack Obama’s hand, she said to him: “Well, it’s just a little overwhelming, isn’t it?”

Robinson moved into the White House – albeit reluctantly at first – and played a unique and crucial role. As the affectionately known “first grandma”, she brought some normality to the lives of her granddaughters, Malia and Sasha.

In 2019, Barack Obama said: “I’ve always appreciated her steadiness, her perspective, and the way a wisecrack from her reverberates around the room.”

Following her death on Friday at the age of 86, the former president paid tribute in a statement to the “extraordinary gift of her life”.

Marian Lois Shields was born in 1937 in Chicago’s South Side and grew up in a small house with seven siblings.

She married Fraser Robinson III, a pump operator for Chicago’s water department, in 1960, and they had two children – Craig in 1962 and Michelle two years later. Robinson worked as a secretary and for a bank before becoming a stay-at-home mother.

Michelle Obama often talks about growing up on the South Side of Chicago – the poorer part of the city that has a large African-