What Took Donda West?
The tragic death Saturday night of Dr. Donda West from what appears to have been complications following plastic surgery has done nothing for our already dour moods around Defamer HQ. Moms, after all, are supposed to make grilled cheeses on rainy days and be our dates for our first Best Screenplay nominations—not die senselessly from elective cosmetic procedures. A round-up of what we know so far:
· A 911 call placed 7:35 pm Saturday brought paramedics to her home. By the time she arrived at Centinela Freeman Hospital in Marina del Rey, she was unresponsive and pronounced dead at 8:29 p.m. at the age of 58. [TMZ]
· Another surgeon recently refused to operate on West because of a heart condition. [AP]
· Six family members waited anxiously in the Centinela Freeman ER while they attempted to resuscitate the patient. A formal autopsy is scheduled for this week. [Us]
· Unabashed mama's boy West always credited Donda with his success, once telling MTV's Diary, "This is my mother. I love her. She is my best friend in the whole world. My mother let me work on music, she helped me out, she used to drive me to the studio. She was really my first manager. She's still my general manger." [MTV]
· She spent 30 years as an English professor at Chicago State University, becoming Chair of the department. She retired to concentrate on promoting Kanye's career, eventually being named chief executive of West Brands LLC, the Kanye's parent company, and head of the Kanye West Foundation, which "aims to keep inner-city youth in school and improve literacy." [Reuters]
· In her memoir Raising Kanye, Donda talked of the year she and Kanye spent in China together: "While I struggled to put together simple phrases, before they left, he was able to speak and understand the language fairly well." [Jezebel]
· Kanye often rapped about his mom, including on "Touch the Sky," in which he remembered the time she drove him from Chicago to New York in a U-Haul van. [CNN]