Catrine Lauper is the mother of Cyndi Lauper. Catrine’s daughter Cyndi is a popular American singer, songwriter, actress, and activist. She is widely known for her distinctive image, featuring a variety of hair colors and eccentric clothing, and for her powerful and distinctive four-octave singing range.
Catrine Lauper: Bio Summary
| Name | Catrine Lauper |
| Date of birth | September 17, 1930 |
| Place of birth | New York, United States |
| Famous as | mother of Cyndi Lauper |
| Died | June 1, 2022 (aged 91) |
| Nationality | American |
| Spouse | Fred Lauper |
| Children | Cyndi Lauper, Fred Lauper, and Ellen Lauper |
| Parents | Sebastiano Gallo and Concetta (Pampalone) Gallo |
Who Was Cyndi Lauper’s Mother, Catrine Lauper?
Catrine Lauper also known as Catrine Domenica Gallo was born on September 17, 1930, in New York, United States. She was the daughter of Sebastiano Gallo and Concetta (Pampalone) Gallo and the sister of Grazia S (Gallo) Lane. She was of Italian descent, from Sicily. She has not shared much details of her family and early life. Catrine Lauper is said to have worked as a waitress.
Italian American, Catrine (née Gallo) met and married Frederick “Fred” Arthur Lauper (January 19, 1920 – October 10, 2004). Although how Catrine met Fred is unknown, they got married on April 11, 1951, in a wedding ceremony attended by their loved ones. Their wedding took place in Queens, New York City, New York, United States. Their marriage was blessed with three children.
They had two girls and only one boy. Ellen Lauper and Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper (Cyndi Lauper) are their daughters and Fred Lauper who is nicknamed Butch, is their only son. Cyndi became a award-winning singer-songwriter, actress, and activist. She has given credit to her mother Catrine for her raising her to be who she is today. Her mom had a great influence on her life and her career.
“My mother taught us to think and ask questions,” Cyndi told the Wall Street Journal. “My mother loved the arts and she’d always take us into Manhattan to see Shakespeare or march us through the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” Cyndi said her mom “was into interior-decorating books and we often changed the color of our bedroom. At one point it was pink. Another time it was the color of sand — my mother never called it beige.”
Catrine Lauper and her daughter Cyndi had a close relationship. She appeared in several music videos of her daughter under the stage name Catrine Dominique. Catrine played a mother in her daughter’s music video “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” The music video gained over 1 billion views on YouTube. Cyndi said: “For Girls Just Want To Have Fun everyone worked hard on the different keys, the different ideas – trumpeting this idea of all girls and all women.”
ALSO, READ: Fred Lauper: Where Is Cyndi Lauper’s Father Now?
“That was the idea behind the video for it too. I wanted every kind of girl in that video; my mother was in that video. I wanted everyone to be like, “Wow! I want to hang with them!”” In addition to “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” Catrine was featured in her daughter’s music videos for “Time After Time” and “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough”. On her mother’s birthday, September 18, 2021, Cyndi shared on Instagram:
“My mom was in every video she possibly could be in with me. She may not have fully known what she was getting herself into, but she wanted to be there for me. We had so much fun. Thank you, Mom. I love you so much. Happy birthday!” Catrine Lauper has appeared as herself on Saturday Night’s Main Event (1985). She also appeared in Cyndi Lauper: 12 Deadly Cyns… and Then Some (1994), per her IMDb page.
Meanwhile, Catrine Lauper and her children’s father Fred Lauper got divorced in 1958. Cyndi Lauper told Vanity Fair: “My mother was always a renegade. She got divorced when I was five, and that was a big thing then. When [my parents] fought, it was like World War II; he called her Mussolini and she called him a Nazi.”
Cyndi said when she was “four and a half” years old, “a dish or something broke [during a fight] and a shard” went into Cyndi’s head. According to Cyndi, her parents “both freaked out”. She was sent to the hospital and after that, her parents decided to split. Cyndi said, “in those days, the 1950s, everybody was a little closed-minded.”
After the divorce, Catrine remarried but divorced again. The man she married allegedly used to spy on her two daughters, Ellen Lauper and Cyndi Lauper when they took their baths. He is said to have tried raping Cyndi.
What Happened To Cyndi Lauper’s Mother?
Catrine Lauper died on June 1, 2022, at the age of 91 years. Her daughter Cyndi Lauper announced her death on social media and paid tribute to her. “My beautiful Mom has passed. She rocked and wrestled with us and was in a lot of my videos,” Cyndi wrote on Instagram. “It was an honor to work with her. I feel so lucky that I got to play with my mom throughout my life, both as a girl and as a woman.”
ALSO, READ: Declyn Wallace Thornton Lauper: Who Is Cyndi Lauper’s Son?
Cyndi Lauper added: “She may have left this world, but not without leaving her mark. Thank you, Mom. I love you.” Several fans and followers of Cyndi entered the comment section to send their condolences. However, before Catrine Lauper passed away, her daughter Cyndi revealed that Catrine was diagnosed with dementia. “My mother has a little dementia,” she said at the time. “She lives in the present.”
Cyndi also said: “The good thing is, I can talk to her and tell her stuff that I really shouldn’t tell anybody, and she’ll give me these wonderful words of wisdom that a mother does. But then, 10 minutes later she’ll forget.” In September 2019, Cyndi celebrated her mother on her 89th birthday. “Today was my mom’s 89th birthday. I thanked her for all she gave me, her voice, her music and her love for art … and of course a great sister and brother.”
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