Alec Baldwin announced his 92-year-old mother passed away Thursday in a heartfelt obituary he posted on Instagram.
Carol Baldwin, mother of the 64-year-old actor and his five siblings, died in Syracuse, New York – the same city where she was born and raised, went to college and met her husband.
Alec Baldwin posted side-by-side photos of his mother as a teenager and later in life. He noted his mother’s dedication to supporting breast cancer and funding research after surviving the disease herself.
“My mother taught me the second acts. And the third ones too,” he said, referring to his personal battle with breast cancer. “She spent the last 25 years of her life as a fighter and champion of the cause to which she devoted so much energy.”
Matriarch Baldwin – who also has 25 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren – was born Carol Newcomb Martineau on December 15, 1929.
She met her husband, Alexander Baldwin Jr., of Brooklyn, when they were both students at Syracuse University. They married and had six children, whom they raised on Long Island until the death of Alexander Baldwin, aged 55, in 1983.
Carol Baldwin then raised the children as a single mother, taking a job in marketing research at a local mall when the youngest became a teenager.
In 1991, the mother of six was diagnosed with breast cancer. She beat cancer and later helped start the Carol M Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund at Stony Brook University with the support of the university’s president at the time. A few years later, a second chapter was launched at SUNY Upstate University.
The combined efforts have raised millions of dollars for the cause, according to the obituary.
“We are all extremely proud of his accomplishments,” said Alec Baldwin.
Alec Baldwin’s niece Hailey Bieber shared her post on her Instagram Stories with the caption, “We love you grandma.”