America’s Got Talent star Grace VanderWaal performs at Lafayette Theater
Grace VanderWaal performs at the Lafayette Theater in Suffern Oct. 25, 2017. The show was a fundraiser for the Hope for Change in Ramapo political party.
- Tina VanderWaal had been diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer.
- Grace VanderWaal was a 12-year-old Suffern Middle School sixth-grader in 2016 when she tried out for America’s Got Talent, strumming her ukelele and signing her original song, “I Don’t Know My Name.”
- The attention was nice, Tina VanderWaal said in a 2016 interview with lohud. She added, “I want her to stay grounded for sure.”
Tina VanderWaal, the mother of America’s Got Talent 2016 winner Grace VanderWaal, has died. The 53-year-old former Suffern area resident died Oct. 20 of breast cancer.
Grace VanderWaal announced her mother’s death to her 6.3 million followers on Instagram in an Oct. 21 post.
“Can’t yet find the words. I love you mommy,” the 21-year-old singer posted. “So much. I wake up and want to call you. I don’t know how to move forward without you. I love you.”
Tina and her husband, Dave VanderWaal, has moved many years ago from Rockland and were residing in South Carolina.
Dave VanderWaal announced Tina’s passing in an Oct. 20 Facebook post, calling her “Superwife” and Mother “extraordinaire.”
Dave VanderWaal said Tina had fought an 17-month battle with cancer.
Fighting breast cancer and urging research
In a 2024 post on the fundraising page Pledge the Pink, Tina VanderWaal said she had been diagnosed that June with Triple Negative breast cancer, considered an aggressive form of the disease that poses treatment challenges.
In her last post in March 2025, Tina VanderWaal said she had a brain tumor surgically removed after she reported visual disturbances to her oncologist.
“Today I’m feeling wonderful,” she wrote. Then she urged support for treatment of TNBC, which, she said, “has the worst prognosis and the fastest metastasis but the least research.”
Tina VanderWaal as Grace’s champion, protector
Grace was a 12-year-old Suffern Middle School sixth-grader in 2016 when she tried out for America’s Got Talent, strumming her ukelele and signing her original song, “I Don’t Know My Name.”
Tina was backstage at the Pasadena Civic Center when Howie Mandel hit the buzzer that rang in Grace’s future.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” Tina VanderWaal said in 2016. “There are no words. It was an unbelievable moment.”
In a December 2016 interview with lohud.com, Tina talked about mom things, like ensuring homework gets done, that all her three kids get to their activities and playing sibling referee. With expert mom diplomacy she added, “all three kids really get along great.”
Tina VanderWaal also said her daughter’s safety remained her priority as Grace shot to fame.
“It’s been more nerve-wracking for me and exciting for Grace,” Tina said in 2016, recalling they couldn’t go to a local store without people coming up to Grace.
The attention was nice, but Tina VanderWaal said the family was striving for normalcy. “I want her to stay grounded for sure,” Tina VanderWaal of her then pre-teen daughter. “I think her dad and I feel united in that she needs to stay who she was before this whole thing started.”
Tina VanderWaal is also survived daughter Olivia and son Jakob.
