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NBC News
3 hours ago
- Health
- NBC News
Jeff Bezos mother, Jacklyn Gise Bezos, dies at 78
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' mother, Jacklyn Gise Bezos, has died following a battle with Lewy body dementia, he announced on Instagram. She was 78. Gise Bezos died in her Miami home on Thursday, according to the Bezos Scholars Program, a foundation she started with her husband, Mike Bezos. "After a long fight with Lewy Body Dementia, she passed away today, surrounded by so many of us who loved her — her kids, grandkids, and my dad," Bezos, her eldest son, wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday. "I know she felt our love in those final moments." Lewy body dementia is a type of dementia in which protein bodies called Lewy bodies develop in the brain's nerve cells, impacting the regions involved in movement, memory and thinking, according to the Mayo Clinic. "Lewy body dementia causes a decline in mental abilities that gradually gets worse over time," the Mayo Clinic said. "People with LBD might see things that aren't there, known as visual hallucinations. They also may have changes in alertness and attention." Other symptoms of LBD include slowed movement, confusion, depression and memory loss, according to the Mayo Clinic. It is the second most common type of the dementia after Alzheimer's. Gise Bezos was born in Washington D.C. and eventually moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico with her family, according to the Bezos Scholars Program. She had her first child, Jeff, when she was in high school at the age of 17. "As a young, single mom, Jackie was relentless — taking night school classes following high school and working in a bank by day," the foundation said in their announcement of her death. "Her shift overlapped with a young Cuban immigrant who worked the night shift named Miguel (Mike) Bezos. The two fell in love and were married on April 5th, 1968, in what would be the beginning of a deep lifelong partnership across every aspect of their lives." The couple had two children together, Christina and Mark, and Gise Bezos "dedicated her life to her family and poured her heart into raising her children with compassion, patience, and wisdom," the foundation said. In his statement on her death, Bezos highlighted that his mother's adulthood started early because she had him young. 'That couldn't have been easy, but she made it all work,' Bezos wrote. 'She pounced on the job of loving me with ferocity, brought my amazing dad onto the team a few years later, and then added my sister and brother to her list of people to love, guard, and nourish. For the rest of her life, that list of people to love never stopped growing. She always gave so much more than she ever asked for." But Gise Bezos was also dedicated to education. At the age of 45 in 1991, she went back to school and earned a Bachelor of Arts from Saint Elizabeth University in New Jersey. "Returning to college as an adult and pursuing her own education was just another example of Jackie's determination and grace," the foundation said. "Her commitment to personal growth was an inspiration to all who knew her and a powerful reminder that it's never too late to follow your dreams." In 2000, Gise Bezos founded the Bezos Family Foundation with her husband, children and their families, and in 2005, they founded the Bezos Scholars Program, helping to offer leadership development programs to outstanding students from the U.S. to Africa, per their website. Gise Bezos' death comes just shy of two months after her billionaire son married Lauren Sánchez in Italy. The lavish events celebrating the couple were attended by Oprah, Queen Rania of Jordan, Ivanka Trump and many other VIPs. "We were all so lucky to be in her life," Bezos wrote about his mother. "I hold her safe in my heart forever."
Express Tribune
3 hours ago
- Business
- Express Tribune
Jackie Bezos, mother of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, dies at 78 after long illness
Jackie Bezos, the mother of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and a key figure in the company's early history, has died aged 78. The Bezos Family Foundation confirmed her passing on Thursday at her home in Miami, following a long battle with Lewy body dementia. Jeff Bezos paid tribute on social media, saying she died surrounded by loved ones after a life defined by determination and generosity. Before Amazon became the global powerhouse it is today, Jackie and her husband Miguel made the very first investment in Jeff's risky startup. In 1995, they wrote two cheques totalling $245,573, money they fully expected might be lost. Instead, the gamble paid off beyond anything they imagined, ultimately helping them amass a multibillion-dollar fortune. Jackie and Miguel channelled much of that wealth into philanthropic efforts, particularly early childhood education, decades before Jeff or Amazon had formal charitable arms. The Bezos Family Foundation, founded in 2000, has supported hundreds of initiatives for children and young people, including the Vroom parenting programme and the Bezos Scholars Program, which trains exceptional students from the US and Africa in leadership development. Just last year, the foundation made its largest gift yet, donating $185.7 million to the Aspen Institute to fund a centre focused on youth. Jackie's life story was one of resilience. Born Jacklyn Marie Gise in Virginia in 1946, she became a mother at 17 and faced early challenges, including raising Jeff largely on her own until meeting Miguel Bezos, who adopted him. Known for fiercely advocating for her son's education, she went to great lengths to place him in gifted programmes and encouraged his early passion for technology. In later years, Jackie continued her advocacy, writing opinion pieces and funding education reforms. Her death marks the loss of a woman whose belief in her son helped launch one of the most influential companies in history, while her philanthropy leaves a lasting legacy for generations to come.
India.com
5 hours ago
- Business
- India.com
Who was Jackie Bezos? Jeff Bezos's mother passes away at 78, a single mother who took night classes and worked tirelessly, also first investor in Amazon, look at her Legacy
Jacklyn Gise 'Jackie' Bezos, the mother of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, passed away at the age of 78 after her long battle with Lewy body dementia. She died peacefully at her Miami home, surrounded by loved ones. Jeff shared the news in an Instagram post, praising her love, resilience, and dedication to her family and the causes she championed. Who Was Jackie Bezos? Jackie was just 17, while still in high school, she became a single mother. To provide for her son, she took night classes and worked hard to support Jeff. In his tribute, Jeff wrote: 'She pounced on the job of loving me with ferocity.' In 1968, Jackie married Miguel 'Mike' Bezos, a Cuban immigrant who adopted Jeff and helped raise him. Together, they built a nurturing home for their three children, Jeff, Christina, and Mark. Jackie's home was welcoming for friends, neighbors, and classmates. First Investor In Jeff Bezos Amazon In 1995, Jackie and Mike took a risk of investing $245,000 (Rs 2.08 crore) in Jeff's new idea of an online bookstore which later became ecommerce giant Amazon. Their backing helped Amazon during early days. Within four years, Jeff's net worth reached $9 billion, and by 2018, their investment had appreciated over 12 million percent, reportedly making them worth $30 billion. Jackie's Involvement In Bezos Family Foundation Jackie's influence was more than business. In 2000, she co-founded the Bezos Family Foundation with Mike and their children and took initiatives like: Vroom – offering practical tools to promote early childhood brain development. Bezos Scholars Program – empowering promising young leaders in the US and Africa. Through these efforts, Jackie touched countless lives, supporting educators, families, and future changemakers.
NDTV
9 hours ago
- Business
- NDTV
Jeff Bezos's Mother Jackie Bezos Dies At 78. She Was First To Invest In Amazon
Jackie Bezos, a fierce protector of her son Jeff before he founded Inc. and a deep-pocketed advocate for early childhood education, has died. She was 78. Bezos died at her home in Miami on Thursday, according to the Bezos Family Foundation's website. In a tribute on social media, Jeff Bezos wrote that his mother passed away "surrounded by so many of us who loved her," saying her death followed "a long fight with Lewy body dementia." With her husband, Miguel, Bezos was the first to invest in Amazon. Their two checks, totaling $245,573 in 1995, backed the startup that Jeff Bezos warned would probably fail. It didn't, of course, and the investment - along with subsequent purchases of Amazon shares - netted them a fortune estimated to be as large as $30 billion in 2018. Starting in 2000 - decades before their son or his company launched their own philanthropic endeavors - the couple funded educational programs through the Bezos Family Foundation. For years, it was the highest-profile charity giving away a slice of the fortunes created by the e-commerce giant. "At the core of the foundation's work is Jackie's belief that rigorous, inspired learning - in the classroom and in children's hundreds of daily interactions with adults - will allow students from birth to high school to put their education into action," the organization says on its website. It says her "vision" is behind two in-house programs - Vroom, which disseminates parenting tips via an app and other methods, and the Bezos Scholars Program, which chooses 17 young Americans and Africans to be trained in a leadership development program each year. The foundation has backed hundreds of other organizations, primarily focused on kids and young adults. It made its biggest single gift in August 2024 - $185.7 million to the Aspen Institute to underwrite a new center focused on young people. Father's Work Jacklyn Marie Gise was born in Virginia on Dec. 29, 1946. She grew up in New Mexico, where her father, Lawrence Preston Gise, was a senior official at the US Atomic Energy Commission, the agency that then oversaw US nuclear laboratories. During her sophomore year in high school in Albuquerque, she became pregnant by Theodore Jorgensen, a senior. They married in 1963 and their son, Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen, was born the following January. Jacklyn, known as Jackie, moved back in with her parents and filed for divorce from Jorgensen when their son was 17 months old. Jorgensen, a unicycle polo player who would later run a bicycle shop, acknowledged that he wasn't a particularly good father or husband. "It was really all my fault," he told Bloomberg Businessweek editor Brad Stone for his book, The Everything Store. (2013). "I don't blame Jackie at all." Jorgensen died in 2015. Newly single, Jackie completed high school on conditions imposed by administrators: that she not speak to classmates, loiter on campus or attend graduation. She later enrolled in community college, seeking out professors who would permit her to bring a toddler to class. Second Marriage It was around this time, while working in the Bank of New Mexico's bookkeeping department, that she met Miguel Bezos, known as Mike, a Cuban-born college student who was a night teller at the bank. He had arrived in the US at age 16, a refugee among the thousands of other children sent to live in the US after Fidel Castro's revolution. According to Stone's book, Jackie turned him down several times before finally agreeing to go on a date, to see The Sound of Music. The two married in April 1968 and moved to Texas, where Mike took a job as a petroleum engineer with what became Exxon Corp. They had two children: Christina, in 1969, and Mark, in 1970. Jeff, who had no relationship with his biological father, was adopted by Miguel and took the Bezos surname. Jackie "ran a household steeped in board games, science projects and storytelling," Mark Leibovich wrote in The New Imperialists (2002), his book profiling Jeff Bezos and other business titans of the 21st century. Jackie was a "foremost protector and all-purpose support system" for Jeff, Leibovich wrote. Gifted Program In one example, Jackie got Jeff - a curious child who at age 3 took apart the walls of his crib so he could sleep in a bed - into a pilot program for gifted students at a Houston elementary school. She did the same when the family later moved to Pensacola, Florida. "You don't just go away," she told Leibovich. "You don't go gently. You just keep trying to convince people." She indulged Jeff's passions, regularly ferrying him to Radio Shack so he could tinker with homemade electronics. Mike Bezos climbed the ladder at Exxon, moving the family to Miami, where Jeff graduated from high school. Mike's later work sent him and Jackie to Norway and Colombia. During a stint in New Jersey, Jackie, then 40 years old, earned a degree from the College of Saint Elizabeth (now Saint Elizabeth University) in Morris Township. After Jeff gave up his New York hedge fund job to found Amazon near Seattle, his parents put much of their nest egg into the company - a decision they would later say was a bet on their son rather than the prospects of an internet bookseller. When Amazon became a Wall Street darling after its 1997 initial public offering, Jackie visited newsstands to find stories about her son, then left the magazine open to that page, Leibovich wrote. Move to Seattle In 2000, Jackie and Mike, who by then had retired from Exxon, moved to the Seattle area to be closer to Jeff's growing family. In Seattle, Jackie Bezos wrote occasional opinion pieces in the local newspaper, advocating for early childhood education. She and Mike donated in support of an ultimately successful voter initiative that established state charter schools in Washington and against a proposal to implement an income tax in the state. Voters rejected the tax. The couple were frequent donors to Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, including a $710 million gift in 2022 made outside of the foundation. They kept homes in Colorado and Texas and in recent years spent much of their time living in Miami.
Hindustan Times
12 hours ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
What was Jackie Bezos' net worth? Inside Jeff Bezos' mother's fortune and philanthropic legacy
Jackie Bezos, mother of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, has died at the age of 78. A fierce supporter of her son's e-commerce venture and a philanthropist with a big heart, she passed away at her Miami home on August 14, after a long battle with 'Lewy body dementia', according to the Bezos Family Foundation website. Besides investing a sizeable sum on her son's nascent business venture when it was still a tiny startup, Jackie's net worth goes beyond commercial undertakings, and her story is one of resilience, and compassion. Jackie Bezos has died at 78 leaving behind a legacy of charitable investments.(instagram/@jeffbezos) The Amazon investment In 1995, Jackie Bezos and her husband Miguel 'Mike' Bezos made the decision to back Jeff's budding e-commerce startup by investing a whopping $245,573, despite warnings from the Amazon finder about the potential failure of his venture. Jackie Bezos bought 847,716 shares in July 1995, following her husband who had purchased 582,528 shares five months earlier. This contribution, which was a high-stakes gamble, yielded historically extraordinary returns after Amazon's success, roughly estimated at 12,000,000 percent, elevating their stake to nearly $30 billion at its peak, as of 2018. Keeping aside lumpsum donations and stock sales, analyses indicate that the couple controls an estimate of $10 billion in Amazon shares, making them one of the company's biggest individual shareholders. Also Read | Jeff Bezos announces mother's death, wife Lauren Sanchez drops a comment Bezos Family Foundation Decades before Jeff Bezos' company had launched any philanthropic endeavors, Jackie and her husband started the Bezos Family Foundation in 2000. The charity foundation dedicates profits from the e-commerce giant to fund education initiatives including Vroom and scholarship programs like the Bezos Scholars Program. The Bezos Family Foundation website highlights Jackie's vision for the charity: 'At the core of the foundation's work is Jackie's belief that rigorous, inspired learning - in the classroom and in children's hundreds of daily interactions with adults - will allow students from birth to high school to put their education into action.' The foundation has supported hundreds of other organizations, especially focusing on causes backing children and young adults. Their largest single donation was to Aspen Institute in August 2024, when they granted $185.7 million in order to fund a new youth-focused center. In 2022, a staggering $710 million gift was made to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Centre. Also Read | Jackie Bezos cause of death: How did Jeff Bezos' mother die? All on Lewy Body Dementia battle Trust funds In addition to philanthropic initiatives, the Bezos family manages Amazon stocks through four trust funds - the Jacklyn Gise Bezos 1996 Revocable Trust holding 8.9 million shares, the Miguel A. Bezos 1996 Revocable Trust with 4.8 million, the Bezos Family Trust with 2.9 million, and finally the Bezos Generation Skipping Trust holding 675,000 shares.
