Judy Garland’s Daughter Lorna Luft Says Mom Was An ‘Extraordinary Person’: ‘I’m Deeply Grateful She Was My Mother’

It’s been 50 years since iconic actress Judy Garland tragically passed away, but her loss will always be with her loved ones, especially her three kids, and her middle child, Lorna Luft, recently opened up and revealed just what an amazing person her mom way.

“She was a great mother — incredibly loving, touchy-feely and with a wicked sense of humor.” the 66-year-old said in a recent Sunday Times Post. “She understood about human frailties in other people and was very understanding. She hated discrimination and loved everyone. Both of my parents taught me kindness, understanding and not taking things for granted.” Lorna’s father, who passed in 2005, was Sidney Luft, The Wizard of Oz star’s third husband.

The stage actress was only 16-years-old when her mother was found dead due to a barbiturate overdose, and Lorna recalls how incredible difficult that was. “When she died, in the bathroom of her Chelsea mews house on June 22, 1969, the shock and sense of loss were almost unbearable,” she said. She continued, “Losing a parent at any age is devastating, but when you lose a parent who’s really, really famous, you have to share your grief with the rest of the world and that’s strange. I just knew her as my mother, in the kitchen in a bathrobe, but to the world she was an icon, a legend.”

The Oscar-nominated actress was 47 when she passed, and she had two more kids in her life besides Lorna — Liza Minnelli, 72, and son Joey Luft, 63. “My older sister, Joey and I had a nanny and we had help in the house, because my mother was either making films or recording. She was modern; she was a working mum,” Lorna said of her and her siblings growing up with their mom. “In the late 1950s and early 1960s not many mothers did that. She’d come home exhausted, but she’d still have the energy to sing us a lullaby before bed.”

But the Grease 2 actress will always have memories of her mom, especially how good of a person she truly was. “I’m reminded that my mother is gone every single day; I’ll see her picture in a card store, or hear her voice on the radio,” she said. “Yet I feel she is on my shoulder — she’s always with me. She was an extraordinary person and I’m deeply grateful she was my mother.”

Lorna added, “When people want to go into all her troubles, I think, ‘Just look at what she left. And say thank you.'”

We all know the incredible legacy that Judy left behind, as she reminded us that “there’s no place like home.”