Marian Lois Robinson (née Shields; July 30, 1937 – May 31, 2024) was the mother of Michelle Obama, former first lady of the United States, and Craig Robinson, a basketball executive. She was the mother-in-law of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States. She worked as a secretary and executive assistant before and after raising her children with her husband, Fraser Robinson, in Chicago. In retirement, she moved to the White House during her son-in-law's presidency, where she helped raise her grandchildren.
Contents
Ancestry and early life
Marian Shields was born in Chicago on July 30, 1937, the fourth of seven siblings; five sisters, followed by two brothers, born to Purnell Nathaniel Shields, a house painter and carpenter, and his wife Rebecca Jumper, a licensed practical nurse. Her parents later separated. Both parents had multi-racial ancestry. Her father's grandfather, Dolphus T. Shields (c. 1860–1950), was a descendant of slavery, with his mother a slave and his white father the heir of the slaveowner; he had moved from rural Georgia to Birmingham, Alabama, where he established his own carpentry and tool sharpening business. His descendants moved to Chicago during the Great Migration. Marian Shields's own formal education ended with attending two years of teachers college in Chicago, and she stressed the importance of education to her children.