Funeral Arrangements for Cedella Marley Booker

The funeral arrangements for Cedella Marley Booker, mother of Reggae icon Bob Marley, are set to take place in Jamaica, between Sunday, April 27 and Monday, April 28. Mother Booker, as she was affectionately known, died on Tuesday, April 8 at her South Miami, Florida home. She was 81 years old.

The two day activities surrounding the celebration of her life and achievements will commence with a public viewing at the National Arena in Kingston on Sunday, April 27 between 10 a.m. and 3:p.m., and the funeral service at the Ethiopian Orthodox Church on Monday, April 28 commencing at 8:00 a.m.

At the public viewing on Sunday, musicians and singers will pay tribute to her love of music and her achievements. The final service will take place at the Ethiopian Orthodox Church on Maxfield Avenue, commencing at 8:00 a.m., where the service will be officiated by Father Haile Malekat Dobson, Administrator of the Ethopian Orthodox Church in Jamaica. The procession will then journey to Nine Miles for the interment where she will be laid to rest in the garden next to her son’s Masoleum.

Cedella Marley Booker has recorded solo and collaboration albums, performed in the U.S., Jamaica, Europe, Mexico, and Africa, and authored a book, Bob Marley, My Son.

Mother B is well known for her philanthropy both in Jamaica, the wider Caribbean and in South Florida. She has adopted the Basic School at Nine Mile in St. Ann, renamed the Cedella Marley Booker Academy. Both Mrs. Booker and her son Bob Marley were born in Nine Miles. She is also associated with Rhoden Hall Basic School and Eight Mile Basic School in St. Ann.

Her son Richard Booker said of his mother: “My mother is a rare woman, loved by everyone she met. I know that she is in the hands of Jah and will never be forgotten here on earth.”
A Rastafarian by faith, Cedella Booker showed the world a peacefulness and love that she openly shared with all those who surrounded her. In the spirit of Bob Marley, Mother Booker founded Movement of Jah People, an organization that benefits the underprivileged in South Florida and the Caribbean.

She is survived by daughter Pearl Livingston, son Richard Booker, daughters-in-law Rita Marley and Sharien Fogle-Booker, nieces, nephews, 14 grandchildren, and 49 great-grandchildren.