Cedella Booker

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Sidilla Editha "Cedella" Booker (previously Marley, née Malcolm; July 23, 1926 – April 8, 2008) was a Jamaican singer and writer. She was the mother of reggae musician Bob Marley.

Biography

Booker was born Cedilla Editha Malcolm in Rhoden Hall,

While living in Trenchtown, Booker gave birth to a daughter, Claudette Pearl, with Taddeus Livingston, the father of Bunny Wailer, who formed the original Wailers trio with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh in 1963. She then married Edward Booker, an American civil servant, and resided first in Delaware, where she gave birth to two more sons, Richard and Anthony, with Booker. After Edward Booker's death in 1976, Cedella moved to Miami, Florida, where she was present at the deathbed of her famous son, who died from cancer in 1981. In 1990, Anthony was killed in a shootout with Miami police, after walking through a shopping mall with a 12-gauge shotgun and opening fire on responding police.^[4] Booker lived in Miami for the remainder of her life.

In 1993, Booker conceived and created what is today called the 9 Mile Music Festival, an annual music event held every year since in Miami to help keep alive Bob Marley's message of peace, love, and unity. As part of the admission fee to the one-day music festival, attendees bring canned goods that are collected and donated to help feed the needy in the Miami area through various local charities.

Called "the keeper of the flame," Booker grew voluminous

Booker died in her sleep from natural causes in Miami on April 8, 2008. She is survived by her son Richard Booker and his children Princess Booker, Crystal Booker and Zaya Booker.[5]

Works

Booker wrote two books on Bob Marley.^[1]

• Bob Marley: An Intimate Portrait by His Mother, which was published in 1997
  ISBN 978-0-14-025814-1
• Bob Marley, My Son, which was published in 2003
  ISBN 978-0-87833-298-4

External links

• The story of Cedella Booker and Bob Marley
• Wailers Discography- Family Tree
• Cedella Marley Booker at the Reggae Kentucky Splash
• Cedella Marley about her son Bob Marley