Tupac's Mom Dead at 69

Afeni Shakur suffered apparent cardiac arrest at home
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted May 3, 2016 10:11 AM CDT
Tupac's Mom Dead at 69
In this June 16, 2011 file photo, Afeni Shakur, mother of the late Tupac Shakur, attends the 2Pac 40th Birthday Concert Celebration in Atlanta.   (AP Photo/ Ron Harris)

Afeni Shakur, mother of Tupac, died Monday at a Northern California hospital after apparently suffering cardiac arrest at her Sausalito home. The Marin County Sheriff's Department confirmed her death on Twitter after deputies responded Monday night; she was pronounced dead at the hospital about an hour later. She was 69, USA Today reports.

Shakur, born Alice Faye Williams, changed her name when she moved to New York and joined the Black Panther movement, the New York Daily News reports. She was serving an 11-month prison sentence while pregnant and up until shortly before Tupac was born in 1971, facing conspiracy charges that were later dismissed, the AP reports. She later struggled with drug abuse, until Tupac gave her an ultimatum to get clean or get out of his life, CNN reports; he also told local drug dealers to stop selling to her, and she got clean in 1991. After his death in 1996, she founded the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation for youth arts programs. (More Tupac Shakur stories.)

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