Carol Bongiovi, Jon Bon Jovi’s Mother, Dies at 83

Nicknamed Mom Jovi, she founded the Jon Bon Jovi fan club, and earlier was a Marine and a Playboy bunny.

Carol Bongiovi with Jon Bon Jovi and his wife, Dorothea Hurley, at the Grammy Awards in 1991.Credit…Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

Carol Bongiovi, the mother of the pop star Jon Bon Jovi, died at a hospital in Long Branch, N.J., on July 9. She was 83.

Her family confirmed the death in a statement on Wednesday.

Ms. Bongiovi, a former Playboy bunny and U.S. Marine, according to her family, was also the founder of her son’s fan club, which she ran from a flower shop in suburban New Jersey, and came to be known to some fans as Mom Jovi.

“Our mother was a force to be reckoned with,” Bon Jovi said in the statement. “Her spirit and can-do attitude shaped this family.”

Carol A. Sharkey was born on July 12, 1940, in Erie, Pa. In 1959, she joined the U.S. Marine Corps, where she met her future husband, John Bongiovi Sr.

After they were discharged from the military, the couple married and raised three sons in Sayreville, N.J., starting with Jon, born in 1962.

Ms. Bongiovi worked as a bunny at the Playboy Club in New York City when Jon was growing up, the singer told Larry King in 2006.

“I did go there as a kid,” he said. “Oh God, did I have the stories and the pictures.”

Ms. Bongiovi and her husband bought Jon his first guitar for Christmas when he was about 13. She also encouraged him to perform from a young age.

“I would hold him in front of a mirror and dance with him,” Ms. Bongiovi told The New York Times in 1989. “And then I would get him to stand up, and I’d applaud and show him how to stand up and take a bow.”

She also inspired some of her son’s fashion choices, including a long cream Christian Dior coat that Jon, who changed the spelling of his last name after signing his first record deal, borrowed from his mother’s wardrobe and wore in 1984.

Bon Jovi’s working-class background — his mother a florist, his father a hairstylist — formed part of the narrative he built as a rock star from New Jersey.

In 1989, Ms. Bongiovi and her husband sold the family’s four-bedroom colonial home to the cable music channel MTV, which gave it away in a contest promoting the release of “New Jersey,” an album by Bon Jovi’s rock band.

The family then moved to Holmdel, N.J., where Ms. Bongiovi lived until her death.

In addition to her husband, whom she remained married to for 63 years, and her son Jon, she is survived by her sons Anthony and Matthew and eight grandchildren.

Bon Jovi paid homage to his parents’ enduring marriage in the music video for the 2021 song “Story of Love.” In the video, he sings and strums a guitar in front of a large black-and-white portrait of his parents as a young couple.