Tupac News: Tupac's mother Afeni Shakur dead at 69
American rapper Tupac's mother, Afeni Shakur, died late Monday night perhaps from a heart attack.
The Marin County Sheriff's Department says it responded to Afeni's Sausalito, CA home Monday around 9:43 PM for a report of a cardiac arrest. She was transported to a hospital ... where she was pronounced dead at 10:28 PM.
Afeni was a philanthropist, founding and running the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation after her son's death. She was also a Black Panther who defended herself in court when she was accused of multiple bombings.
As keeper of all things Tupac, Afeni greenlit the biopic, "All Eyez on Me" ... which just recently wrapped filming.
The Marin County Sheriff says the coroner will investigate to determine the exact cause of Afeni's death.
She was 69 years old. Shakur (born Alice Faye Williams) was born in Lumberton, North Carolina, on January 10, 1947, and was known as a political activist and former member of the Black Panther party. In April 1969, she and a number of other Black Panthers were arrested and charged with several counts of conspiracy to bomb police stations and other public places in New York.
She was pregnant during her trial on the charges and gave birth to son Tupac Amaru Shakur on June 16, 1971. After struggling for a period in the 1980s with a drug problem that lead to an estrangement from the budding rapper, Afeni got clean in the early 1990s and reconciled with Tupac, who chronicled her struggles in his song "Dear Mama."
After Tupac was killed in a still-unsolved drive-by shooting in 1996, Afeni became an executor of his estate, founding Amaru Entertainment to release her son's posthumous albums and the Tupac Amaru Foundation for the Arts charity, which helps young people get involved in the arts. She was also instrumental in helping to bring the musical Holler If Ya Hear Me to Broadway in 2014.
