Trevor Noah Pays Tribute to Grandmother Francis “Gogo” Noah – The Hollywood Reporter

Trevor Noah is paying tribute to his grandmother Frances “Gogo” Noah, who died at the age of 95 and was laid to rest on Thursday.

The Daily Show host, who frequently spoke about his grandmother on the show and once featured her in a segment discussing her experience living under apartheid in South Africa, began his remembrance post with one of her jokes: “How can I smile for a photo when I don’t have teeth?”

Noah’s message then recounted who she was as a woman and to her family, with Noah paying special tribute to her influences on him as her grandson.

“This morning our family laid to rest the oldest member of our clan Frances Noah, or as most of us referred to her, Gogo,” he wrote. “My grandmother was born in 1927 and even though she was 95 years old, she still had the best memory of us all. Every moment spent with her felt like a magical journey through time where she would recount all of the family’s greatest joys, losses, achievements and milestones.”

Trevor went on to say talk about how she welcomed not just her family, but neighbors, fellow women and the vulnerable into her home, making it a “refuge.”

“Her house in Soweto wasn’t just a home, it was a refuge, a place where other women would come when they had no other place to go, a place where members of the community would gather to pray together every single week, a place where everyone was guaranteed to feel the love emanating from her mighty chest,” he explained.

After thanking fans for their condolences and blessings “sent in her memory,” and acknowledging how fans had grown “to love Gogo from afar,” Noah got his most emotional.

“I’ve cried all week celebrating the greatest ‘movie’ I’ve ever watched. A story that began with my first breath and ended with her last,” he said. “A woman who showed me the truest definition of unconditional love. She passed away peacefully in her sleep and even blessed us with one final Mother’s Day which she enjoyed to the fullest. Hamba Kahle Gogo.”

Many Daily Show viewers likely knew Gogo best from Noah’s more than 10-minute segment, “Trevor Chats with His Grandma About Apartheid and Tours Her Home, ‘MTV Cribs’-Style,” in which she detailed life living under apartheid — the government-imposed racial segregation that took place in South Africa between the 1940s until the early 1990s — and spoke to Noah’s childhood.

View the segment below.

Following Noah’s post on Thursday, The Daily Show shared a tribute segment to Frances Noah, featuring various clips from the series wishing her a happy birthday, talking about her sense of humor and life growing up with her in South Africa. It also features Daily Show segments in which she appeared on camera, as well as interviews with Trevor on other programs speaking about her impact on him.

Trevor Noah is paying tribute to his grandmother Frances “Gogo” Noah, who died at the age of 95 and was laid to rest on Thursday.

The Daily Show host, who frequently spoke about his grandmother on the show and once featured her in a segment discussing her experience living under apartheid in South Africa, began his remembrance post with one of her jokes: “How can I smile for a photo when I don’t have teeth?”

Noah’s message then recounted who she was as a woman and to her family, with Noah paying special tribute to her influences on him as her grandson.

“This morning our family laid to rest the oldest member of our clan Frances Noah, or as most of us referred to her, Gogo,” he wrote. “My grandmother was born in 1927 and even though she was 95 years old, she still had the best memory of us all. Every moment spent with her felt like a magical journey through time where she would recount all of the family’s greatest joys, losses, achievements and milestones.”

Trevor went on to say talk about how she welcomed not just her family, but neighbors, fellow women and the vulnerable into her home, making it a “refuge.”

“Her house in Soweto wasn’t just a home, it was a refuge, a place where other women would come when they had no other place to go, a place where members of the community would gather to pray together every single week, a place where everyone was guaranteed to feel the love emanating from her mighty chest,” he explained.

After thanking fans for their condolences and blessings “sent in her memory,” and acknowledging how fans had grown “to love Gogo from afar,” Noah got his most emotional.

“I’ve cried all week celebrating the greatest ‘movie’ I’ve ever watched. A story that began with my first breath and ended with her last,” he said. “A woman who showed me the truest definition of unconditional love. She passed away peacefully in her sleep and even blessed us with one final Mother’s Day which she enjoyed to the fullest. Hamba Kahle Gogo.”

Many Daily Show viewers likely knew Gogo best from Noah’s more than 10-minute segment, “Trevor Chats with His Grandma About Apartheid and Tours Her Home, ‘MTV Cribs’-Style,” in which she detailed life living under apartheid — the government-imposed racial segregation that took place in South Africa between the 1940s until the early 1990s — and spoke to Noah’s childhood.

View the segment below.

Following Noah’s post on Thursday, The Daily Show shared a tribute segment to Frances Noah, featuring various clips from the series wishing her a happy birthday, talking about her sense of humor and life growing up with her in South Africa. It also features Daily Show segments in which she appeared on camera, as well as interviews with Trevor on other programs speaking about her impact on him.