Cedella Booker | Bob Marley's mother, 81

Cedella Booker, 81, the mother of Jamaican music legend Bob Marley, has died, a family spokesman said yesterday.

She died in her sleep Tuesday at her home in Miami, apparently from natural causes, spokesman Jerome Hamilton said.

Mrs. Booker, a Jamaica native, was 18 when she married Norval Marley. Their son brought Jamaican reggae music to international prominence. Bob Marley died in Miami of cancer 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," Jamaican Information Minister Olivia Grange said.

After Norval Marley died in 1955, Mrs. Booker married an American and settled in Delaware. She wrote two biographies of her son and recorded two albums.

"She was a star in her own right," Jamaican 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."

Everyone in St. Ann's parish knew Mrs. Booker as "Mama B," said Harry Shivnani, a family friend and general manager of Bob Marley's mausoleum. "She loved cooking," Shivnani said. "Mama would make you the best pudding ever." - AP