Notorious B.I.G.’s Mom Voletta Wallace Dead at 78 – E! Online – E! NEWS
Notorious B.I.G.’s mom Voletta Wallace, who devoted her life to upholding the rapper’s legacy following his 1997 death, has died. She was 78.The mother of a hip-hop icon has left the world too soon. Voletta Wallace, the mom of late rapper Notorious B.I.G. (real name Christopher Wallace), died Feb. 21 in her Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, home, Monroe County coroner Thomas Yanac confirmed to TMZ. She was 78. The coroner noted that Voletta had been in hospice care, and had died of natural causes. E! News has reached out to Monroe County coroner and the Wallace family concerning Voletta’s death but has not yet heard back. Following the 1997 murder of her son—the drive-by shooting remains unsolved—Voletta devoted her life to protecting his legacy. This includes establishing the Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation to give back to the community through arts education. A teacher in New York schools for more than two decades, she regularly repurposed her son’s “B.I.G.” moniker, which stood for “Business Instead of Game” to “Books Instead of Guns.”In wake of the tragic death of her son—who was also known as Biggie Smalls—Voletta detailed that she was unexpectedly thrown into the spotlight, and previously scoffed at the preconceived public perception of her. “They weren’t looking for an intelligent mother, a school-teacher mother,” she told the Pocono Record in 2003. “They were looking for a bum.”And while Voletta was vocal about her distaste for rap music—and said she was “furious” when B.I.G. told her he wanted to be a rapper—she respected her son’s art. “I didn’t like it because I didn’t know what they were saying, but my son, I knew his words,” she told the Pocono Record. “He could articulate his story. I never liked profanity. I still don’t, but I understand what he was saying.”Voletta is survived by her grandchildren, T’yanna Wallace and C.J. Wallace, Biggie’s respective children with ex Jan Jackson and wife Faith Evans.The 78-year-old was born in Jamaica and grew up with three siblings before moving to New York, describing her childhood as “wonderful” and “innocent” to the Pocono Record. In her free time, she loved to garden and regularly shared updates on her floral and fauna to social media—in addition to promoting her son’s music. She also often wrote inspirational messages alongside her posts. “If life has taught me anything, it’s to keep pushing forward no matter what,” she wrote in a Jan. 2024 Instagram post, “and to keep love in your heart.”This story was updated on Feb. 21, 2025, at 1:10 p.m. PT with the correct age.Your source for entertainment news, celebrities, celeb news, and celebrity gossip. Check out the hottest fashion, photos, movies and TV shows!© 2025 E! Entertainment Television, LLC A Division of NBCUniversal. All rights reserved.
Source: https://www.eonline.com/news/1413772/notorious-b-i-g-s-mom-voletta-wallace-dead-at-72
