Cher’s Mother, Actor and Singer Georgia Holt, of ‘I Love Lucy,’ Dies at 96 | “Mom Is Gone”

Cher's mother, Georgia Holt, died at the age of 96, Cher announced on Twitter alongside a sad-face emoji with the tweet, "Mom is gone." The musician, 76, previously revealed that her mother was hospitalized with pneumonia in September. "Sorry I've Been Mia. Mom's Been Sick Off & On. She Just Got Out Of Hosp. She Had Pneumonia," Cher wrote at the time, adding, "She's Getting Better." In recent years, the Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again star has been extremely “careful” not to contract COVID-19. “We have a little bubble that we’ve had all this time,” she told PEOPLE in 2020 while speaking about her mother’s health. "We wear masks, and there's not very many of us. It's my sister, my brother-in-law, my mom, my assistant. And we stay far apart from each other. I have to be careful too because I have asthma. ... I have different health problems."

The late actress, model, and singer was born Jackie Jean Crouch in Arkansas. She moved to Hollywood in her 20s and landed roles in films and TV from the 1950s Watch the Birdie to I Love Lucy. She also recorded an album titled Honky Tonk Woman in 1980. The tapes were lost until she found them in her garage. Holt eventually sent them to her musical director, and they were released that year. According to HuffPost, she was married to Cher's father twice. She tied the knot with John Sarkisian, once from 1946 to 1947 and again from 1965 to 1966. She was married and divorced four other times. Her last relationship was with Craig Spencer from 1976 until her death.

In 2013, Cher paid tribute to her spirited mother in a documentary titled Dear Mom, Love Cher which featured interviews with Holt, her daughters Cher and Georganne LaPiere, and Cher’s children Chaz Bono and Elijah Blue Allman. Cher has previously revealed some of the lessons she learned about life and love from her mother. “She never gave me and my sister advice because, truthfully, she knew we’d never take it,” the Believe singer told PEOPLE in 2013. “Instead, we learned about life by listening to her talk about the things she did wrong and the things she did right.” Speaking of the memories of her mother she had in her childhood, she revealed, "She and her friends were so beautiful. When they walked into the room, everything stopped. She was also an amazing dresser. We based the costumes in Mermaids on pictures of her from the ’50s."

References:

https://people.com/celebrity/cher-reveals-what-she-learned-from-her-mom/

https://people.com/music/chers-mother-georgia-holt-dead-at-96/

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/georgia-holt-dead-cher-mother_n_63969907e4b0804966adc1f1/amp

Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Jason Merritt