Julia Roberts' mother Betty Lou Bredemus died early Thursday after a battle with lung cancer in Los Angeles at 80 years old.

PEOPLE reports Bredemus opened an acting school in Smyrna, Georgia in her earlier years and was the mother of four children and the grandmother of actress Emma Roberts along with Julia's three children, 10-year-old twins Phinnaeus and Hazel and a 7-year-old son named Henry.

"The first time I felt famous was when I went to the movies with my mom," Julia told PEOPLE in 2002 adding that another theatergoer had recognized her from the 1988 "Mystic Pizza."

Bredemus is survived by her three children; 58-year-old Eric Roberts, 49-year-old Lisa Gillan and Julia. Her daughter Nancy Motes died last year at age 37.

USA Today reports that Julia Roberts' half-sister Nancy Motes also died in L.A. last year after overdosing on drugs and drowning in a bathtub. Her death was later ruled as a suicide after finding a note written for her family.

"You don't want anything bad to happen to anyone, but there are so many tragic, painful, inexplicable things in the world," Roberts told WSJ magazine at the time she was grieving her sister's death. "But (as with) any situation of challenge and despair, we must find a way, as a family ... It's so hard to formulate a sentence about it outside the weepy huddle of my family."

She had to meditate to get through her sister's death.

"Meditation or chanting or any of those things can be so joyous and also very quieting," Roberts said and has also introduced the practice to her children. "We share and just say, 'This is a way I comfort myself.'"

Julia Roberts wanted to be a veterinarian when she was growing up but later studied journalism before trying her hand at acting in Hollywood.

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