Brad Pitt is mourning the death of his mother Jane Etta Pitt,
Jane Etta Pitt passed away at 84, his niece Sydney Pitt announced in an Instagram post honoring “my sweet Grammy.” Sydney Pitt shared the news on Wednesday, August 6, describing her grandmother in fond terms and expressing her gratitude for the many lessons and love Jane shared throughout her life.
“We weren’t ready to say goodbye, but knowing you’re free to sing and dance and paint again eases the ache just a little,” she wrote. “If you ever met Grammy, you felt the size of her heart—it cared for everyone, every stray kitten, every neighbor, no questions asked.”
Brad Pitt added that there had never been any shortage of affection from her and everyone who crossed her path left feeling she had given a piece of it. “I really don’t know how we move forward without her. But I feel her in every swirl of paint, every kind word, every flash of hummingbird wings. She was love walking in sunlight.”
Born in Memphis in 1940, Jane Etta Pitt grew up to teach elementary school. She met William, Brad’s dad, at Oklahoma Baptist University. They married in 1962 and settled in Springfield, Missouri, where they raised Brad, Doug, and Julie.
“Jane painted her soul onto canvas, her family explained, and every color she picked mirrored her love. During quiet afternoons, the smell of acrylics mingled with cookie dough as she brewed craft sessions with her grandchildren, turning the kitchen table into a rainbow of laughter and tiny handprints.
They called her Grammy, and over fourteen of them she orchestrated a ritual she called ‘Your Special Day’—a secret calendar where each child claimed a whole afternoon of solo stories, silly songs, and a painting that proved, over and over, that they were the brightest one. These afternoons, now photos in grown-up wallets, linger as the happiest whispers in all their hearts.”
Reflecting on his youth in a Missouri interview with GQ, Brad Pitt called the faith of his first years “the starchy, clean, on-time Christianity.” By the time he entered high school, he said, his parents shifted into a livelier, hands-up movement full of tongues, swaying, and “some goofy stuff.”
Brad, who liked night classes in world literature, found the new worship “hosted a curious kind of freedom.” Around the same time, he began feasting on foreign films, each frame a door into lives that felt, wonderfully, unreachable, and he felt the urge to keep crossing the thresholds.
“I actually went to a couple of concerts, even though we got the message that rock shows were, like, the Devil’s deal,” Pitt told GQ. “But Mom and Dad were cool enough to let it slide; they weren’t the helicopter type at all.”
Pitt’s mother showed up at a handful of major stops alongside him. In 2014, the whole family sat together at the premiere of “Unbroken,” the World War II film that Pitt directed and that Angelina Jolie, then his wife, produced.
In 2002, Jane popped up on “The Late Show with David Letterman” when the producers were collecting celebrity moms to share their running advice: “Don’t buy the hype you see about yourself, sweetheart,” she teased the camera. “You’re just a short, chubby, bald guy like everybody else.”
In 2012 she made news again when she wrote an op-ed for the Springfield News-Leader, encouraging fellow Christians to vote for Mitt Romney, as ABC News reported.
Earlier this year, Brad Pitt sat down with The Hollywood Reporter and talked about Jane Etta Pitt, saying, “She’s very loving. I always find it hilarious that tabloids paint her as a she-devil when there’s not a trace of malice in her.” The light-hearted honesty underscored how he sees her against the drama the world sometimes projects.
In June, while stopping by the “Today” show to chat about “F1,” he found a moment to wave hi to her live. “Got to shout out my mom, ’cause she watches you every morning,” he told Savannah Guthrie, grinning.
“To Jane Pitt—love you, Mom.” He blew a kiss straight to the camera, turning a promotional stop into a small, public love letter.
1 thought on “Shocking: Brad Pitt’s Mother, Jane Etta Pitt, Passes Away at 84: Family, Legacy & Tributes.”