Elaine DePrince, mother of acclaimed ballerina Michaela DePrince, died a day after her renowned daughter, unaware of her death.
She was 77.
Mother to 12 children, many of them adopted, Elaine DePrince had been an early advocate for ensuring the safety of blood products for hemophiliacs after three adopted sons, all afflicted with the bleeding disorder, died of AIDS contracted from HIV-tainted clotting factor.
She died Sept. 11 “during a routine procedure in preparation for a surgery,” family spokesperson Jess Volinski said in a social media post Saturday. She did not know daughter Michaela had died the day before at age 29.
“Michaela died before Elaine, and Elaine did not know of Michaela’s passing at the time of her procedure. As unbelievable as it may seem, the two deaths were completely unrelated,” Volinski wrote. “The only way we can make sense of the senseless is that Elaine, who had already lost three children many years ago, was by the grace of God spared the pain of experiencing the loss of a fourth child.”
A cause of death has not been released for Michaela DePrince, who was born in Sierra Leone, West Africa, amid the country’s civil war, which orphaned her by age 4. Adopted by Elaine DePrince after more than a year in an orphanage, Michaela went on to blaze a trail first as the youngest member of the Dance Theater of Harlem, at 18, and eventually as a principal soloist at the Boston Ballet.
Elaine DePrince died “after many years of battling a hereditary disease and heart failure,” her family wrote, adding that she is survived by her children Mia, Beelee, Jaye, Mariel, Amie and her two sons, Erik and Adam. “The family thanks you for their privacy as they navigate this very difficult time.”
With News Wire Services