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June 1 (UPI) -- Marian Robinson, the 86-year-old mother of former first lady Michelle Obama, died Friday. "My mom Marian Robinson was my rock, always there for whatever I needed, Michelle Obama wrote on X. "She was the same steady backstop for our entire family, and we are heartbroken to share she passed away today."
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Former President Barack Obama posted on X: "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."
The family did not disclose the cause of death or funeral arrangements.
The Chicago was married to Fraser Robinson, and the pair had two children, Michelle and Craig. Fraser Robinson died in 1991 after a long struggle with multiple sclerosis.
During the Obamas' eight years in the White House from 2009 to 2017, she lived with them, helping raising her two grandchildren, Sasha and Malia,
"We needed her. The girls needed her," the family's statement said of her move to Washington. "And she ended up being our rock through it all."
An exhibit in the Obama Presidential Center Museum, which is now under construction in Jackson Park, will be named in honor of Marian Robinson.
"She was a South Sider through and through," Daid Axelrod, a CNN senior political commentator, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on The Situation Room on Friday. "She did not take to the whole celebrity lifestyle ... She would often slip out of the White House on her own and visit with friends."
