What We Know About Michelle Obama's Father's Health Struggles
Michelle Obama has often credited her parents, Marian and Fraser Robinson III, with shaping her into the woman she is today. However, their own lives were nothing like their daughter's incredible trajectory. Neither completed college, with Fraser actually dropping out so he could work and help put his younger brother through school. Once he and Marian welcomed their first child, son Craig Malcolm Robinson, in 1962, Marian chose to be a stay-at-home mom. Meanwhile, Fraser got a job at a water filtration plant in their native Chicago, Illinois. Daughter Michelle was born just two years later and they set out to give their children the life they never had.
Then, when Fraser was just 30 years old, everything changed as he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). As Mayo Clinic explains, MS is a condition in which the immune system attacks the central nervous system and it affects patients differently. Symptoms can evolve over time and range from blurry vision to vertigo, inability to walk, trouble speaking, and more. In Fraser's case, it impacted his mobility. Yet, despite needing a cane, Michelle told Oprah.com, "He got up, he went to work, he was never late, he never complained, and he was always, always focused on his family." Growing up watching him and his unrelenting drive would shape her life. Here's what we know about Michelle Obama's father's health struggles.
Inside Fraser Robinson III's struggle with MS
Michelle Obama was just five years old when she first noticed her father using a cane. As she wrote in her 2022 memoir, "The Light We Carry: Overcoming In Uncertain Times" (via CNBC), "Slowly and silently and probably long before he received a formal diagnosis, MS was undermining his body, eating away at his central nervous system and weakening his legs." Despite that, he never missed a day of work as a pump operator at the city's water plant. Fraser Robinson III was in his thirties and had a young family to take care of and he rose to the challenge. Speaking with REVOLT in 2022, the former first lady recalled how her dad refused to ever give up. "He could have never worked a day in his life, he could have collected social benefits, he could have succumbed to his disease and been depressed about it, but he didn't," she shared. "He never felt sorry for himself, he never expected others to do for him."
Indeed, in her 2018 memoir, "Becoming," Michelle remembered being struck by the progression of her father's diagnosis, as well as his refusal to complain. "Before I finished elementary school, that cane would become a crutch and soon after that two crutches," she wrote in an excerpt published by Today. "Whatever was eroding inside my father, withering his muscles and stripping his nerves, he viewed it as his own private challenge, as something to silently withstand."
Fraser Robinson III's lasting impact on Michelle Obama
After more than two decades of living with multiple sclerosis (MS), Fraser Robinson III died from MS complications in 1991 at age 55. The loss shook Michelle Obama who was just 27 at the time. "It hurts to live after someone has died," she wrote in her 2018 memoir, "Becoming." "It hurts to put on a pair of socks, to brush your teeth. Food tastes like nothing. Colors go flat. Music hurts, and so do memories." And yet, she still thinks of him daily. As she shared during her 2015 commencement speech at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. College Preparatory High School, he continues to be an unshakable source of inspiration. "He is the hole in my heart," she admitted. "His loss is my scar [but] his memory drives me forward every single day of my life."
That's because one of her top priorities is to make him proud, and to do justice to his biggest lessons. "Every day, without fail, I watched my father struggle on crutches to slowly make his way across our apartment, out the door to work, without complaint or self-pity or regret," she told grads, per Time. Even when mundane, everyday tasks like getting dressed became hard, he pushed on and fueled his daughter's own drive to succeed. As she shared on Instagram, "My father, Fraser, taught me to work hard, laugh often, and keep my word."