From the SF Chronicle, noted in the sports pages by Henry Schulman. Listed here for the music link:
Zito's mother dies: Funeral arrangements are pending for Roberta Zito, Barry's mother, who died in Los Angeles early Thursday morning. She was 65 and had been hospitalized for three days. The cause of death was not immediately known, but she had struggled with health issues for many years, according to the pitcher's publicist, Kathy Jacobson.
Jacobson said Barry Zito was "heartbroken, as you would imagine, with the loss of his mom. She really was the heart of the family."
The pitcher, his father, Joe, and sisters Bonnie and Sally were at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center when Roberta died. Jacobson said Mrs. Zito attended all of Barry's starts in Oakland and San Francisco until a hip and knee replacement this year prevented her from traveling. She did see Zito's final start of 2008.
Roberta Zito was a member of the Merry Young Souls, the backup group for singer Nat King Cole, when she met Joe in the early 1960s. Joe Zito was a composer and conductor for Cole. They married in 1964.
