All About Cass Elliot's Daughter Owen Elliot-Kugell

The Mamas & the Papas musician Cass Elliot welcomed daughter Owen in 1967

Owen Elliot-Kugell was just 7 years old when her mother, Mamas & the Papas singer Cass Elliot, died of a heart attack at age 32. Despite not having much time with her mother, Elliot-Kugell has since dedicated her life to ensuring Elliot’s life and musical legacy are not forgotten.

“I can’t tell you the number of people over the years who have told me how much my mother’s music and who she was affected them, and made a major difference in their lives,” Elliot-Kugell told Variety in 2022.

Elliot had a resurgence in early 2023 when her 1969 song “Make Your Own Kind of Music” went viral on TikTok. "It's the coolest thing I could possibly even conceptualize," Elliot-Kugell told Rolling Stone of hearing her mother’s voice on countless videos via the video-sharing platform. "I'm a total TikTok junkie, and I'm loving, in particular, the context that people are using the song because it's completely accurate in the whole attitude."

Elliot-Kugell hoped that Elliot’s viral moment would keep her life and work “prominent and alive” in the modern music world and find her a new generation of fans.

“The thing that people connect with about my mom is the idea of triumphing over adversity,” she explained. “When people are told ‘No, you can’t do something’ or ‘No, you’re too fat’ many times people will just walk away. But my mom didn’t do that. She was a woman in a man’s world who paved the way for other women of size. And that’s important.”

Here’s everything to know about Owen Elliot-Kugell.

She was born in 1967

Elliot gave birth to her only child on April 26, 1967. At the time, Elliot-Kugell’s paternity was not made public.

Elliot had long wanted someone to love and to love her in return, and the birth of Elliot-Kugell made that dream a reality. “Even the name she chose for me underscored her desire for a creature to love. She named me Owen because I was her ‘own,’ ” Elliot-Kugell reminisced to NextTribe in 2018, adding that her mother called her “Owenski.”

Elliot also wrote a song called “Lady Love” dedicated to Elliot-Kugell. Before she begins singing, Elliot says, “I’d like to sing this song especially for my little daughter.”

She was raised by her aunt

After Elliot died in 1974 at age 32, Elliot-Kugell was raised by her aunt, Leah Kunkel, and her husband Ross. Elliot-Kugell was at her grandmother's when Elliot was found dead in London. She was just 7 years old at the time.

“I have a very, very clear memory of her telling me that my mom died,” Elliot-Kugell told Rolling Stone of the moment. “I remember thinking, ‘Oh, well, they’re not right. They’re wrong. She’s just traveling. She’ll come back. She always does.’ ”

According to Elliot-Kugell, she had a “dramatic” realization of how much her life was going to change after Elliot's funeral. “I was being asked who I wanted to ride home with, my grandmother or my aunt and uncle,” she said. “It struck me: I’d better get used to my new life. I don’t have my mother anymore. It was a hugely defining, hugely sad moment of realization.”

Elliot-Kugell was raised by her aunt and uncle, splitting her time between Los Angeles and Massachusetts. Still, Elliot-Kugell said that Elliot's influence never left her. “These two incredible women made me who [I] am today,” she wrote on Instagram in 2020 alongside a photo of herself, Elliot and Leah. “We are a long line of strong women. Long may we reign.”

She has “vivid” memories of her mother

Elliot-Kugell told Variety that her memories of her mom are “not numerous, but they are vivid.”

Because much of her time with her mom was recorded, she can revisit those moments via old clips.

“I do have a treasure trove of written and video interviews, including one from The Dinah Shore Show, when she brought me along. Getting to see our interaction was incredibly meaningful for me. I can see her caressing my head, giving me a hug because she knows I’m shy,” Elliot-Kugell explained. "When I find out these things, I can feel them on a cellular level that they’re true. I can just tell instinctually. I’ve had to learn about her, and I’m constantly seeking out more information.”

Michelle Philips helped her find her father

When Elliot-Kugell was a teenager, she asked her mother’s bandmate Michelle Philips to help her locate her dad. Phillips told Vanity Fair that she began asking her musician friends for information, and it took her about a year to track him down. Once they had connected, Phillips sent Elliot-Kugell a plane ticket to meet her father, a touring bassist named Chuck Day.

According to Elliot-Kugell, Philips has served as a surrogate mother to her throughout her life. “There have been times when I’ve been devastatingly upset about things in my personal life, and I’ve really leaned on Michelle,” she said. “She’s been a mother to me in a way that would make my mom definitely chuckle.”

In May 2024, Elliot-Kugell told PEOPLE that meeting her father was a "surreal experience" — one that ultimately gave her "closure."

"The second I saw him, I knew we shared DNA. He was a little uncomfortable," she said. "He was a perfect stranger telling me how much he loved me and it was the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard in my whole life.”

She helped get her mother a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

In 2022, Elliot-Kugell set out to get her mother a spot on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

"I just want people to remember my mom’s legacy,” Elliot-Kugell told Variety of her quest. “This honor is such a great accomplishment. I’m sure she’d be over the moon.  A hundred years from now, that star will still be here. If my mom knew the effect she’d had on so many people’s lives in making them feel good, that would have made her happy.”

She wrote a book about her mom

Elliot-Kugell’s memoir, My Mama, Cass, is set to be published by Hachette Books in May 2024. According to Elliot-Kugell, the book was more than a decade in the making and includes not only her story, but her mother’s as well. "I’ve wanted to tell her story for a really, really long time, and I didn’t know how to do it,” she explained to Rolling Stone. “I’m still not really confident about it because it’s so new to me. I never would’ve thought that I would’ve been able to do this in any way, shape, or form without a ghostwriter.”

To put the pieces together, Elliot-Kugell relied heavily on print and TV interviews with her mom, as well as stories she had heard throughout her entire life. “There is such a sense of completion and real satisfaction as a result of all of this,” she shared. “It’s kind of weird to say, but I feel like, in some ways, I know her better now," she said.

Elliot-Kugell discovered that not only was Elliot a supremely talented musician and important figure in the ‘60s music scene, but she was also far ahead of her time. “She was a trailblazer, a successful woman in a male-dominated business. An iconic artist, she was the most loyal of friends, of which she had many,” Elliot-Kugell shared in a press statement. “Most importantly, she was a single mother who just wanted someone of her very own. That was me."

She’s a musician

Elliot-Kugell, like her mother, is a talented singer and says she “hovered around music” for most of her life, even hopping onstage with her fellow rock star progeny Carnie and Wendy Wilson and Chynna Phillips to cover the Mamas & the Papas song “Dedicated to the One I Love.” (Elliot-Kugell and Carnie are good friends.)

She has two children

Elliot-Kugell married the Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer Jack Kugell in 1991 and the couple have two children, son Noah and daughter Zoe. The family lives in the San Fernando Valley in California.

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