Jackie Bezos, the mother of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, died on Thursday at her home in Miami at age 78.
Jeff Bezos shared the news on Instagram, saying she passed away surrounded by family after a long fight with Lewy Body Dementia.
Bezos said his his mother “pounced on the job” of loving him when she gave birth at age 17 and that for the rest of her life, the “list of people to love never stopped growing. She always gave so much more than she ever asked for.”
In an obituary published by the Bezos Family Foundation, the philanthropic organization started in 2000 by Jackie Bezos, her husband Mike and their children, Bezos is described as a devoted mother who made “countless trips to Radio Shack for Jeff.”
Her philanthropic pursuits included spearheading the 2016 opening of the Bezos Family Immunotherapy Clinic, a first-of-it’s kind facility that was the result of a collaboration between the Fred Hutch Cancer Center and the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.
In 2017, Jackei and Mike Bezos gave Fred Hutch $35 million on behalf of the family — at the time it was the single largest philanthropic commitment in the center’s 41-year history. They easily eclipsed that number in 2022 with a “transformative” $710.5 million gift.
“What we are really giving is the gift of time for all those people who will benefit from new treatments and cures,” Jackie Bezos said in 2017. “It’s the gift of more hugs, more graduations and more moments.”
Jacklyn Gise Bezos was born on Dec. 29., 1946, in Washington, D.C. Her family moved to Albuquerque, N.M., and in high school she gave birth to her first child, Jeffrey, her obituary reads. She met Miguel (Mike) Bezos, a young Cuban immigrant and married on April 5, 1968. They had two more children, Christina and Mark, and were married for 57 years.
“We were all so lucky to be in her life. I hold her safe in my heart forever,” Jeff Bezos said on Instagram.
