Michelle Obama’s Mother Passes Away at 86: “My Rock”

(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) Marian Robinson, the mother of former first lady Michelle Obama, has passed away at the age of 86, her family announced Friday. Mrs. Robinson’s death was announced by Michelle Obama and other family members in a statement that said “there was and will be only one Marian Robinson. In our sadness, we are lifted up by the extraordinary gift of her life.” “She passed peacefully this morning, and right now, none of us are quite sure how exactly we’ll move on without her,” the statement read. She was a widow and lifelong Chicago resident when she moved to the executive mansion in 2009 to help care for granddaughters Malia and Sasha. In her early 70s, Mrs. Robinson initially resisted the idea of starting over in Washington, and Michelle Obama had to enlist her brother, Craig, to help persuade their mother to move. “We needed her,” the family’s statement read Friday. “The girls needed her. And she ended up being our rock through it all.” In a 2018 interview with “CBS Mornings” alongside her daughter, she described the move as a “huge adjustment,” but felt she needed to do it to help care for her granddaughters,...