DeBarge Family Matriarch Etterlene Dead at 88

Etterlene DeBarge — gospel singer and matriarch of the legendary DeBarge household — has died … TMZ has confirmed.

The mother-of-ten handed away peacefully in her sleep at Berkley Publish-Acute in Woodland Hills Friday morning — this in keeping with her daughter Etterlene “Bunny” DeBarge. A reason for loss of life has not but been introduced, however sources inform us EDB was sick and battling dementia.

Bunny broke the information on-line — posting a brief message to social media, merely asserting her mom’s loss of life to followers of the group … noting she was in a greater place now.

Etterlene met Robert DeBarge — her future husband — again in 1952 and married him the next 12 months. They constructed an enormous household, full with 10 totally different kids  … seven of whom went on to play within the Motown tremendous group DeBarge.

The Grammy-nominated group was lively from 1979 to 1989 earlier than the lure of solo contracts for Bunny and El DeBarge helped result in the group splitting up. There have been different elements that finally ended the household band.

Etterlene and Robert divorced in 1974, and Etterlene chronicled their marriage and her kids’s rise to fame within the e book “Other Side of the Pain.” She married George Rodriguez in 1980 — a pairing that lasted the remainder of her life.

Etterlene is survived by George, eight of her kids, and quite a few grandchildren. Certainly one of her sons, Robert DeBarge Jr., handed away in 1995 whereas Tommy DeBarge handed away in 2021. Clearly, her legacy and influence in music lives on by means of her kids.

Etterlene was 88.