Jacklyn Gise Bezos, the mother of Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos, died on Thursday. She was 78.
Bezos shared the news in a touching tribute on Instagram.
“After a long fight with Lewy Body Dementia, she passed away today, surrounded by so many of us who loved her — her kids, grandkids, and my dad,” he wrote of his mom, who was diagnosed in 2020. “I know she felt our love in those final moments. We were also lucky to be in her life. I hold her safe in my heart forever.”
Bezos’ mom, whom he’s called his role model on multiple occasions, had him when she was a 17-year-old high school student in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“That couldn’t have been easy, but she made it all work,” he said in his tribute.
“She pounced on the job of loving me with ferocity, brought my amazing dad onto the team a few years later, and then added my sister and brother to her list of people to love, guard, and nourish,” he continued. “For the rest of her life, that list of people to love never stopped growing. She always gave so much more than she ever asked for.”
When Bezos was four years old, his mom married Miguel Bezos, a Cuban immigrant, who later adopted him. It wasn’t until he was 10 that he learned Miguel Bezos wasn’t his biological father, he’s said.
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Bezos’ parents were early investors in Amazon, putting more than $245,000 in the company in 1995, which could make them worth billions today, Bloomberg reported. And their support was integral in him taking the emotional jump to start the company.
“When you have loving and supportive people in your life,” he told Mathias Döpfner, the CEO of Business Insider’s parent company, Axel Springer, in 2018. “You end up being able to take risks because you kind of know somebody’s got your back.”
Bezos has called his mother one of his role models on multiple occasions. In 2020, he named a Blue Origin rocket recovery boat in her honor.
“New Glenn’s first stage will come home to the Jacklyn after every flight,” he said st the time. “It couldn’t be more appropriately named — Mom has always given us the best place and best heart to come home to.”
Jackie Bezos was a strong supporter of education — and fought for her own. After she got pregnant, “they tried to kick her out of school,” Bezos told Dopfner. But her father “went to bat for her,” and she was able to go back and graduate. Decades later, when she was 45, she went back to school to earn her Bachelor’s Degree in psychology.
In 2000, she, Miguel, and their family started the Bezos Family Foundation, through which she dedicated her efforts to Vroom, which distributes early brain research, and the Bezos Scholars Program for students in the US and Africa.
