Beach Boys' Brian Wilson's Wife, Melinda Ledbetter Wilson, Dead at 77
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Musician Brian Wilson and wife Melinda Ledbetter in February 2015
Melinda Ledbetter Wilson, Beach Boys' Brian Wilson's wife, is dead at 77.
On Tuesday, Jan. 30, Brian took to Instagram to announce the sad news. "My heart is broken. Melinda, my beloved wife of 28 years, passed away this morning," he wrote. "Our five children and I are just in tears. We are lost."
Brian's message continued: "Melinda was more than my wife. She was my savior. She gave me the emotional security I needed to have a career. She encouraged me to make the music that was closest to my heart. She was my anchor. She was everything for us.
The post featured two photos—one of a younger Melinda and another shot of a younger Melinda and Brian posing together.
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Additionally, Brian and Melinda's children—Dakota Rose, Daria Rose, Delanie Rose, Dylan and Dash—shared a statement.
"She was a force of nature and one of the strongest women you could come by," they wrote. "She was not only a model, our fathers savior, and a mother, she was a woman empowered by her spirit with a mission to better everyone she touched."
Melinda's kids shared they would "cherish everything she has taught us," including "how to take care of the person next to you with out expecting anything in return, how to find beauty in the darkest of places, and how to live life as your truest self with honesty and pride."
In conclusion, they wrote, "We love you mom. Give Grandma Rose and Pa our love."
In 2014, the biopic Love & Mercy, starring John Cusack and Elizabeth Banks, followed Brian and Melinda's love story, Brian's struggle with mental illness and how Melinda helped him break free from the influence of his therapist and legal guardian Dr. Eugene Landy.
The past couple of months for Brian have been wrought with loss. In December, he mourned the death of his Beach Boys bandmate, Jeffrey Foskett. Foskett died at age 65 on Dec. 11, after a years-long battle with anaplastic thyroid cancer.
