Mothers of Celebrities...where did you get the idea?

We are all fascinated by celebrities and at the same time are also most interested in the importance of parenting and motherhood. Combining the two should enable all of us to understand the importance of motherhood through the examples of mothers of those whose lives are in the public domain. David Letterman's mom at the Olympics was an example. We also saw the country fascinated by Newt Gingrich's mom on TV talking about Hillary Clinton. A more personal example to us came at a Berklee College of Music Commencement (where Dave works) when Sting, in his speech, commented on the role that his mother had played in demonstrating to him the special nature of music.

How did you select the celebrities to include?

For the most part, they are individuals who have stood the test of time to the point of having a biography written about them. This provided our primary source of material. Then we looked for anecdotes and stories in the person's development where motherly influence somehow related to what the person came to be known for as an adult.

Is there a pattern to the anecdotes and stories?

After we were into the middle of our research, we began to see a number of values and virtues that seemed to be common among the celebrities. These eventually sorted into the seven virtues we selected: Ambition, Courage, Devotion Mothers Book of Virtues We then researched these virtues which when learned by these celebrity-to-be children become a cornerstone value of the subsequently successful person's life.

We are all familiar with stage mothers who guided their child's career. Tell me an interesting story of this...

It was often said that there was a mom behind every successful man. Of course today, "man" is replaced by "person" and this book clearly demonstrates that mothers guided their daughters as well as their sons. The book starts with these stories beginning with Milton Berle whose mom is quoted as saying "Thank God you are a star, Milton. I was getting tired." She closely guided his career and helped him in many ways. Another related story is Reba MacIntyre's mom who drove her all about to various gigs and eventually to her initial recording session in Nashville.

And a final note ........ Selected from biographies, this book brings together a unique collection of stories of 101 celebrities whose lives were indelibly influenced by their mothers. At a time when our society is looking to understand, develop and enhance the concept of family values, it is important that we look to our role models for illustrative examples of how their values were shaped by their parents. These real life stories transcend political rhetoric and media hype by depicting real mothers whose early messages guided those who have become public peresona throughout history. In other words...it's a pretty good book.