Georgia Holt, Cher’s mother, died at 96: Georgia Holt had been hospitalized in September for pneumonia, her daughter Cher said.
Georgia Holt, Cher’s mother, has died. She was 96 years old.
The musician, who is 76 years old, tweeted the news early Saturday morning. Cher tweeted, “Mom is dead,” with a sad face emoji.
This comes three months after the pop star posted on social media that her mother was in the hospital in September with pneumonia.
Georgia Holt, Cher’s mother, died at 96
“I’m sorry, I’ve been MIA. Mom has been sick here and there. She just left the hospital. She had pneumonia,” Cher wrote at the time, adding in a second tweet, “She’s getting better.”
Cher talked about her mother’s health before when she told PEOPLE that she got tested for COVID-19 “all the time” and tried to be “very careful” with her elderly mother during the 2020 holiday season.
“We’ve been living in a little bubble all this time,” she said. “We hide behind masks, and there aren’t many of us. It’s my sister, my brother-in-law, my mom, and the person who helps me. And we don’t see each other much.”
She also said, “I have asthma and other health problems, so I have to be careful too.”
Holt was born in Arkansas in 1926. Her parents were Lynda Inez Gulley, who was 13 years old, and Roy Malloy Crouch, who was 21 years old. Holt is an actress, model, and singer.
After moving to Los Angeles, she got parts in movies and on TV, from 1950’s “Watch the Birdie” to “I Love Lucy.” She also appeared on The Mike Douglas Show and The Merv Griffin Show in 1979 and 1980. Her first album, Honky Tonk Woman, was recorded in the 1980s and was released in 2013.
Back in 2013, when Lifetime’s one-hour special Dear Mom, Love Cher came out, the singer talked to PEOPLE about the lessons she’s learned from Holt throughout her life, especially while growing up in the San Fernando Valley with Holt and her sister Georganne LaPiere Bartylak.
Holt and many of her relatives, like Cher and Bartylak, as well as her grandchildren Chaz Bono and Elijah Blue Allman, told Holt’s story in the documentary.
Cher said of her mother, “She never gave me or my sister advice because she knew we’d never follow it.” “Instead, we learned about life by listening to her talk about the things she did right and wrong.”