Jacqueline Cruz Towns, the mother of NBA All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns, passed away Monday due to complications from the novel coronavirus the Minnesota Timberwolves announced. She was 58.
“Jackie, as she was affectionately known among family and friends, had been battling the virus for more than a month when she succumbed on April 13,” the Towns family said in a statement. “Jackie was many things to many people – a wife, mother, daughter, grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend. The matriarch of the Towns family, she was an incredible source of strength; a fiery, caring, and extremely loving person, who touched everyone she met. Her passion was palpable and her energy will never be replaced.”
On March 25, Karl Towns revealed in a five-minute, 47-second video he posted on his YouTube channel and various social media accounts that both his mother and father, Karl Towns Sr., both became ill with COVID-19.