Tagged: mother

    The Friday before Mother’s Day in 2011, we had Dave Isay on to talk about the book, Mom: A Celebration of Mothers from StoryCorps. As many of you know, StoryCorps is an oral history project designed to document the fascinating lives or normal people. That Spring, Sarah LaDuke's  Mom - Carolyn - turned 70 and retired, so she copied the StoryCorps model (they encourage everyone to do so) and we aired some of her recorded conversation with her mom.

Since that conversation, Carolyn LaDuke has been through a lot. She survived a heart attack in October of 2011 and was diagnosed - for the second time - with breast cancer in late September of 2012. She has recently finished two extremely trying rounds of chemotherapy and should begin radiation soon. This Friday before Mother’s Day - today - we wanted to share a new interview with Sarah's Mom.

    In her new book, Mom & Me & Mom, Maya Angelou dramatizes her years reconciling with the mother she preferred to simply call Lady, revealing the profound moments that shifted the balance of love and respect between them. It is a tribute to motherhood and unconditional love.

  This segment begins with audio from an episode of the 1980s television series, Fame. In the clip, Carol Burnett performs with the eldest of her three daughters, Carrie.  Carrie was a series regular and Carol joined the program as a guest star.

In 2002 - at the age of 38 - Carrie died of cancer. 

The new book, Carrie and Me: A Mother-Daughter Love Story is Carol Burnett’s poignant tribute to her late daughter and a funny and moving memoir about mothering an extraordinary young woman through the struggles and triumphs of her life. Sharing her personal diary entries, photographs, and correspondence, Carol traces the journey she and Carrie took through some of life’s toughest challenges.

    Mary Williams was born to Black Panther parents during the heart of the Black Power movement in Oakland, Calif., in the 1970s. She was just a toddler when her father went to San Quentin prison.

Her mother, struggled to support the family on her own, turning to alcohol, as her oldest sister turned to crack and prostitution. But when Williams was sent to spend the summer at a camp run by Jane Fonda, her life began to change.

Over the course of several summers, Fonda and Williams grew close, and eventually, the Hollywood star invited Williams, at age 16, to come live with her in Santa Monica. This was the beginning of a journey, which she chronicles in her new memoir, The Lost Daughter.