Jacklyn Bezos, Mother of Jeff Bezos, Dies after Lewy body dementia battle

WASHINGTON — The mother of Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has died. Jacklyn “Jackie” Bezos was 78, her charitable foundation said. 

The Bezos Family Foundation, the philanthropic organization she founded in 2000 along with her husband Mike, announced her death on its website Thursday.

“She dedicated her life to her family and poured her heart into raising her children with compassion, patience, and wisdom,” the organization’s obituary reads.

According to the foundation, Bezos died peacefully in her Miami home. No cause of death was listed, but Jackie Bezos had been fighting Lewy body dementia, a brain disorder, for five years before her death. 

Jeffrey Bezos was Jacklyn’s first child, whom she raised as a single mother after giving birth in high school. After high school, she took night classes and worked at a bank, meeting her eventual husband Miguel “Mike” Bezos. The two married in 1968, and had two other children, Christina and Mark. 

“Jackie was not only a mother to her own children, but to many others as well,” the Bezos Family Foundation wrote about her. “Over the years, her home became a welcoming gathering place for her children’s friends. Jackie created a space where everyone felt safe, heard, and cared for. Whether offering a plate of food, a bit of advice or simply a listening ear, she had a remarkable way of making people feel like family.” 

Eventually, her oldest son, Jeffrey, would go on to found Amazon.com as an online bookstore, with funding from his mother and adoptive father. 

Amazon would grow in the 21st century to be one of the largest companies in the world, making Jeff Bezos one of the richest men in the world. 

According to the announcement of her death, Jackie Bezos had been fighting Lewy body dementia, a brain disorder, for five years before her death. 

Lewy body dementia, sometimes referred to as LBD, is a progressive neurological disease that affects thinking, movement, behavior and mood. 

It’s caused by Lewy bodies, for which it’s named. The bodies are abnormal protein deposits in the brain, which disrupt normal function. There is no cure for the disease, which is the second-most common type of dementia after Alzheimer’s, according to the Mayo Clinic. 

The disorder can cause symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease, including tremors, rigidity, and slowness of movement. 

It also causes the trademark cognitive decline dementia is known for. Those living with the disease can have declining awareness of their surroundings, problems with attention or memory-retention, and other prohibitively-debilitating mental problems, although memory issues are not as prominent early on with LBD. 

The Bezos Family Foundation was founded in 2000 by Jackie and Miguel, who remained major donors to the foundation over the next quarter century. 

Although the foundation has a wide range of philanthropic activities, it has a focus on supporting education, which was a passion of Jackie’s. 

“Education was always important to Jackie,” the foundation’s obituary reads. 
She believed deeply in the power of learning—not only for her family, but for herself.” 

In 2023, Jackie and Mark stepped down from active leadership roles in the foundation, transitioning to co-chairs of the board of directors.