Iconic singer/songwriter Billy Joel has lost his mother, Rosalind Nyman Joel, at the age of 92. She had been in hospice care according to Long Island’s Newsday.
Joel was born on February 15, 1922 the English immigrants. In 1942, she met Howard Joel, a refugee from war torn Germany and the two were married four years later after Howard’s sting in the service during World War II.
William Martin Joel, now know to the world as Billy Joel, was born in May of 1949 and was followed by his sister Judy was adopted after the death of Rosalind’s sister Muriel.
The couple divorced in 1957 with Rosalind keeping the family together after Howard returned to Germany, working in various clerical positions on Long Island. Some of that money was used to give Billy music lessons on piano based in the world of classical music.
While Rosalind was the inspiration for a number of Joel’s songs, it is most poignant in the song Rosalinda’s Eyes on the 52nd Street album.
Joel is survived by her son, her sister, Bertha Miller, and two grandchildren, Alexa Ray Joel and Rebecca Molinari Gehrkin.
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