Cedella Booker, the mother of reggae legend Bob Marley, died in her sleep at her home in Miami, Florida on Tuesday (8 Apr), it has been announced. She was 81.
Booker married Norval Marley, who was 32 years her senior, when she was 18. Her husband died of a heart attack in 1955. Their only child, Bob Marley, died from a brain tumour in 1981. She wrote two biographies of her famous son and released two albums as a singer herself.
Cedella is survived by two children from a subsequent marriage and several grandchildren.