103.9 FM WDKX
Rochester, NY
Your #1 Radio for R&B
On air:
The Wake Up Club with
Tariq, Liz, Andy & BIRD
Listen Online
103.9 WDKX Live Stream
REQUEST A SONG!
Request A Song
Cedella Booker, the mother of reggae legend Bob Marley, died Tuesday night at her home in Miami, family spokesman Jerome Hamilton confirmed to the Associated Press. She was 81.
Booker apparently died from natural causes, according to Hamilton.
The Jamaica native was 18 when she married Norval Marley, a British man 32 years her senior. Their son became an international superstar before a brain tumor took his life in 1981 at age 36.
"Mrs. Booker was the matriarch of a movement so powerful that the mystical qualities of the Marley musical legacy remain strong and potent,"
Jamaica Information Minister Olivia Grange said.
"She was a star in her own right," Jamaica Prime Minister Bruce Golding said in a statement. "Her life was one of hardship, struggle and eventual fulfillment, and through it all, she exuded hope, strength and confidence."
Following the death of Norval Marley in 1955, Booker married an American man and settled in Delaware. She wrote two biographies of her famous son and recorded two albums, "Awake Zion!" and "Smilin' Island of Song."
Funeral arrangements have not been announced.
