 Cedella Marley-Booker
b. Cedella Malcolm July 23, 1926 - St. Anns, Jamaica d. April 8, 2008 - Miami, FL, USA
Cedella Marley Booker (July 23, 1926 – April 8, 2008) was the Jamaican mother of the reggae musician Bob Marley and a singer and writer.
She was born Cedella Malcolm in Rhoden Hall, Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica to Omeriah Malcolm and Alberta Whilby. Cedella married Norval Sinclair Marley, a white Jamaican of Welsh ancestry, when she was 18. Norval Marley was a Marine officer and captain, as well as a plantation overseer. He provided financial support for his wife and child but seldom saw them, as he was often away on trips. Bob was ten years old when Norval died of a heart attack in 1955 at age 60. Cedella and Bob then moved to Trenchtown in Kingston. Jamaica. While Cedella Marley-Booker grew up in a victorian home that her parents originally lived in, that home is now replaced by the new building for the Bob Marley Foundation.
Cedella moved to Kingston, Trenchtown neighborhood not because it was a Slum, but, where she could afford to live at the time, being a young woman from the country moving to the big city on her own.
Cedella later remarried Mr. Booker, an American. Cedella Marley-Booker lived in Wilmington, Delaware where most of the family resides. Cedella like the other family members joined Genivy Adella Brown [the oldest sister] who adopted the state of Delaware for the family's residence. The entire family at one time or the other has either lived in Delaware or made brief stops there.
Cedella Booker-Marley last visited Delaware on March 5, 2008 to attend Genivy A. Brown's funeral.
She released the music albums Awake Zion and Smilin' Island of Song.
She died at the age of 81 in Miami, Florida on April 8, 2008. |