When Annette Funicello’s daughter, Gina Gilardi Bleifer, and a friend came home from a high school dance one night in the ’80s, she was surprised to hear loud music blasting from her bedroom. “We opened the door to find my mom sitting at my desk, fake microphone in hand, singing ‘The Best of Times’ by Styx at the top of her lungs,” Gina tells Closer Weekly in the magazine’s latest issue, on newsstands now. “We laughed until we cried.”

It was always the best of times when Annette was with Gina, now 54, and her brothers, Jack Jr., 49, and Jason, 45. “She was very loving and family-oriented,” Jason tells Closer. “She always preferred spending time with her family over living the Hollywood life.” Agrees Gina, “She was the best — sweet, beautiful and patient yet stern. We had rules, and we were given so much love.”