Mother Of Tupac Shakur Dies At 69

Afeni Shakur, mother of the late rap icon Tupac, has reportedly passed away.

Details are few at the moment, but early reports indicate Marin County sheriff’s deputies responded to a call at Shakur’s home in Sausalito, California on Monday night after she suffered a possible cardiac arrest. She was taken to a local hospital where officials say she died before 10:30 p.m. The local sheriff’s department later confirmed the news.

Shakur, 69, had a huge impact on her son’s work and was the subject of one of his biggest hits, “Dear Mama,” a song in which he detailed her struggles to raise him as a single parent, and her struggles with drugs. Prior to his birth, Shakur, Alice Faye Williams in Lumberton, North Carolina, was involved in the black activist movement of the 1960s and ’70s, joining the Black Panther Party. In 1969, she along with other Party members was charged in an alleged plot to bomb city landmarks in New York City in a case called the Panther 21. She was acquitted of the charges and released in May of 1971, and Tupac was born the following month.

Later in life, Afeni Shakur spent the past several years overseeing Tupac’s estate and leading the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation, a Georgia-based program that provides opportunistic in the performing arts for the youth.

(Via NYDN)