Barbara Gibb, the mother of the three Gibb brothers who became pop band the Bee Gees, has died at the age of 95.
Barbara, who was born and raised in Manchester, died of natural causes on Friday evening at her home in Miami, where she had lived for the past 20 years, according to a publicist for her eldest son, Barry Gibb. Her son, Barry, and daughter, Lesley, survive her.
The family were living on the Isle of Man when she gave birth to Barry and the twins, Robin and Maurice, who would later go on to form The Bee Gees. She also had another son, Andy, and a daughter, Lesley, with her husband Hugh Gibb, a bandleader for the Hughie Gibb Orchestra in Manchester, whom she married in 1944.
The couple managed their sons’ early music career and The Bee Gees became one of the most successful pop bands in history. As a band and through solo projects, the trio sold tens of millions of records.
She survived the deaths of three of her five children. Andy, also a successful musician, died in 1988 aged 30 from the heart condition myocarditis. Maurice died unexpectedly in 2003 at the age of 53 due to complications from a twisted intestine, while his twin Robin died in 2012 aged 62 from liver and kidney failure after battling colorectal cancer.