By Arianne Washington // Notable Deaths // EEW Magazine Online

`Marian Robinson, mother of former First Lady Michelle Obama, passed away. (Credit: Essence)`

WASHINGTON — Marian Robinson, the mother of former First Lady Michelle Obama, has died at the age of 86, according to a statement obtained by EEW Magazine.

“She passed peacefully this morning, and right now, none of us are quite sure how exactly we’ll move on without her,” the family statement read.

The statement was issued by Michelle and Barack Obama; Craig Robinson and his wife, Kelly; and Marian Robinson’s grandchildren, Avery, Leslie, Malia, Sasha, Austin, and Aaron.

Marian Robinson gained national attention as the nation’s first grandmother after her son-in-law, Barack Obama, was elected president in 2008. Though she maintained a low profile during her time at the White House, she participated in holiday events, occasional overseas trips, and concerts in the East Room. Most notably, she was a constant presence for her granddaughters, Sasha and Malia. In 2009, Robinson moved from Chicago to Washington, D.C., to live in the White House and help care for the girls, who were seven and 10 years old at the time.

“I felt like this was going to be a very hard life for both of them,” she said in a CBS interview, referring to her daughter and son-in-law. “And I was worried about their safety, and I was worried about my grandkids. That’s what got me to move to D.C.” The family noted that Robinson agreed to leave Chicago with "a healthy nudge."

"We needed her. The girls needed her. And she ended up being our rock through it all," the statement said.

"She relished her role as a grandmother. ... And although she enforced whatever household rules we’d set for bedtime, watching TV, or eating candy, she made clear that she sided with her 'grandbabies' in thinking that their parents were too darn strict," the statement added.

Born in Chicago in 1937, Robinson grew up on the city’s South Side and raised her two children, Michelle and Craig, there. She was married to Fraser Robinson, who passed away in 1991 from multiple sclerosis.

Former President Barack Obama once described his mother-in-law as “the least pretentious person I know.” In her CBS interview, Robinson mentioned that it was a “huge adjustment” being served by White House staff, whom she persuaded to let her do her own laundry.

"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 family said in its statement. "The only guest she made a point of asking to meet was the Pope."

President Obama credited Robinson with keeping his daughters grounded during their White House years.

“She’s down to Earth and she doesn’t understand all the fuss,” he said on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."

Michelle Obama had a close bond with her mother. Robinson narrated the biographical video introducing her daughter at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. After the family left the White House, Robinson remarked, “My saying is when I grow up, I would like to be like Michelle Obama.”

Recently, Michelle Obama honored her mother on Mother’s Day by announcing that an exhibit at the Obama Presidential Center Museum in Chicago will bear her name.

“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,” the former first lady said in a video announcement. “I simply wouldn’t be who I am today without my mom.”

The family’s statement concluded with a tribute: "There was and will be only one Marian Robinson. In our sadness, we are lifted up by the extraordinary gift of her life. And we will spend the rest of ours trying to live up to her example."