Mother of singer Jon Bon Jovi was 83

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Carol Bongiovi, mother of Jon Bon Jovi and a familiar face to fans as the founder of the Bon Jovi fan club, died on Tuesday at the age of 83.

The death of the woman known to some fans as “Mom Jovi” occurred three days before her 84th birthday at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, New Jersey. No cause of death was given.

“Our mother was a force to be reckoned with; her spirit and can-do attitude shaped this family,” Jon Bon Jovi said in a statement announcing the news. “She will be greatly missed.”

After decades of playing a major role in the family’s and, by extension, the band’s history, Carol Bongiovi appeared in one of her son’s more recent music videos, as did her husband of 63 years, John Bongiovi Sr., who survives her. For his 2021 “Story of Love” video, the rocker sang in front of a large black-and-white portrait of his parents in their youth, emphasizing how long they had been together – even as he alluded to his own long-term relationship with his high school sweetheart Dorothea Bongiovi.

“What I got from my parents was the ability to make dreams a reality,” Bon Jovi told the Big Issue in 2020. “Even if you were really no good at your craft, you could work at it if you believed you could. As I got older, I realized that was a great gift I had gotten from my parents. They really believed in John F. Kennedy’s mantra of going to the moon. ‘Yes, of course you can go to the moon. Just go, Johnny.’ And that’s where I went.”

One reason Carol stood out to the band’s fans, aside from her famous support of her son’s musical endeavors, was that very few rockers can tell the story of being the son of two Marines. His parents met while they were both in the Marine Corps in the 1950s and married shortly afterward.

However, not many people can claim to be the son of one of the first Playboy bunnies, which Carol also had on her resume in addition to her military service. Before being drafted into the military, she was also a florist.

Carol Sharkey was born and raised in Erie, Pennsylvania. After she and her husband were discharged from the Marine Corps, they moved to Sayreville, NJ, where their son, Jon, was born in 1962.

According to Laura Jackson’s biography of Jon Bon Jovi, Carol encouraged her son’s budding talent for performing and “would stand in front of a full-length mirror with her older son, where they would have fun watching themselves sing songs.” When he was just 7 years old, she brought home an acoustic guitar and urged him to learn to play it, although he didn’t begin to take music seriously until his teens.

In addition to her husband, her son, a musician, and his wife, Carol is survived by two other sons and their spouses – Anthony and Nina Yang Bongiovi of Los Angeles and Matthew and Desiree Bongiovi of Holmdel, NJ – and eight grandchildren.

Funeral services will be private. Holmdel Funeral Home, which is in charge of arrangements, has set up a memorial page where you can leave your condolences: www.holmdelfuneralhome.com.