DeBarge Family Matriarch Etterlene Dead at 88

Etterlene DeBarge gospel singer and matriarch of the legendary DeBarge family has died.

via: Parade

The gospel singer’s daughter, Etterlene “Bunny” DeBarge, announced her mother’s passing in a Friday, Feb. 16 post on Instagram. Etterlene is widely remembered as the matriarch of the popular Motown R&B group DeBarge, which Bunny was part of alongside several of her brothers.

“Momma has gone to see her king!” the post said of the DeBarge family matriarch. It revealed that she passed away at 7:40 a.m. PT on Friday in Woodland Hills, a neighborhood located within Southern California’s Los Angeles County.

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A post shared by Bunny DeBarge (@bunnydebarge)

Etterlene “died peacefully in her sleep,” Bunny’s post added. In another Instagram post, Bunny wrote that her mother is now “in a better place!!”

Bunny, who is Etterlene’s oldest child, did not mention what her mother’s cause of death was. The singer was believed to be fighting dementia, according to TMZ.

Etterlene was born on October 13, 1935, in Michigan. She had 10 children with her first husband, Robert DeBarge, whom she married in 1953. The couple divorced after more than two decades of marriage, and Etterlene married George Rodriguez in 1980.

RIP.

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