The mother of Kris Jenner, Mary Jo “MJ” Shannon, has died at age 91.
Jenner announced the news via Instagram on Thursday (July 16).
“Today, we said goodbye to my beautiful Mommy MJ,” wrote Jenner, 70. “There are no words that could ever capture what she has meant to me or the heartbreak of having to say goodbye. My mom was the heart of our family.
“She taught me everything that truly matters… to love your family fiercely, to be kind, to show up for the people you love, and to never take a single moment together for granted.”
Shannon, born Mary Jo Campbell, was born in Arkansas on July 26, 1934. She married and divorced her high school sweetheart before marrying Jenner’s father, Robert True "Bob" Houghton, in 1954, according to E! News.
Jenner was born in 1955, and her sister, Karen Houghton, was born in 1958. After breaking up with Houghton in the early ‘60s, Shannon married businessman Harry Shannon, who helped raise Jenner and her sister.
In the early 2000s, MJ Shannon was running a children’s clothing store in San Deigo when her husband was in a car accident. During his hospitalization, he died from a staph infection, which Jenner called “so devastating” to the family.
MJ Shannon appeared on both Keeping up With the Kardashians and the later Hulu show The Kardashians. In an episode last year, Jenner shared that her mother was having a hard time emotionally and physically after the death of Karen Houghton at 65.
"She's frail," Jenner said at the time. "This makes me really sad. I just hate it when she’s in so much pain."
“My heart is broken into a million pieces,” Jenner wrote on Instagram following the death of Shannon, who was a grandmother to 13. “Thank you for giving me the greatest childhood and oh what a beautiful blessed life… I love you forever Mommy. Thank you for giving us everything.”
