First Grandma on Her First Mag Cover

Talks parenting, Washington life with Essence

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Apr 7, 2009 12:31 PM CDT

(Newser) – Marian Robinson posed with her daughter Michelle Obama for Essence this month in the first grandma’s first magazine cover shoot. In an interview with the pair, who are all smiles in the White House shots, Robinson says she’s loving life in DC. “You want to know why? Because my children are good parents.” Robinson says seeing her daughter as first lady is “overwhelming,” but “I never doubted that she could do this. She is doing it with such grace and dignity.”

Michelle, meanwhile, talked warmly of her parents. “I always felt that my father and my mother were unconditionally rooting for me,” she said. “The security of your parents' love really gives you the foundation to think that you can fly. And then you do.” She also touted her mom's sense of humor: "She taught my brother and me to work hard, but to learn to laugh at situations and laugh at yourself and then to move through it."

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Essence's May cover story features the First Lady and her mother. (PRNewsFoto/ESSENCE Magazine, Timothy White)

Sasha, left, and Malia Obama, right, and Marian Robinson arrive, along with First lady Michelle Obama, not shown, to listen to a performance at the White House, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

In this Aug. 26, 2008, file photo, Michelle Obama, right, stands beside her mother Marian Robinson, left, at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

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Essence's editor-in-chief chats with Matt Lauer. (MSNBC)

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There were many times when we were in the midst of getting spanked or disciplined and she would start cracking up. She taught my brother and me not to take things so seriously; to work hard, but to learn to laugh at situations. - Michelle Obama on her mother

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First Grandma on Her First Mag Cover