A Tribute to Brooklyn’s Greatest Mothers, Fictional and Real
These amazing women have helped shape the character of future generations.
by 
by Who would we be without our mothers? They carry us around for nearly a year inside of themselves. In most cases, they raise us and help us to learn the ways of the world. Many mothers are the source of wisdom in their family, helping to keep things in perspective in good times and bad. A mother’s love is one of a kind, and our relationships with our mothers can define the trajectories of the rest of our lives. We only dedicate one official Mother’s Day every year, but we could all do better to appreciate our mothers as much as possible year round.
In honor of Mother’s Day, let’s take a look at some of Brooklyn’s best mothers from real life and the world of fiction.
Pat Benatar
The Greenpoint-born rock goddess who gave us hits like “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” “Love Is A Battlefield,” and “We Belong” has two daughters. Raising children while touring the world isn’t easy, but it’s even more difficult when both parents are touring. Benatar’s husband is also her writing partner and guitarist, yet they managed to successfully raise two daughters. While most rock ‘n roll icons immersed themselves in sex and drugs on the road, Benatar brought her daughters on every single one of her tours. When they got old enough to go to school, she and her husband Neil Giraldo scheduled their tours in the summer so the girls could continue to be with them on the road.
In an interview with Family Circle, Benatar explains the lessons she hoped to impart on her daughters: “I want them to be loving but tenacious and to know they have to be fierce out there as females. When I was starting as a singer, sexism was rampant. I grew up in a household where women worked, so I couldn’t understand how the male-dominated realm of rock music didn’t want to let me in. It made me angry, but I used that anger to break through the barriers.” She also discusses the difficulty of being a mother with a Type A personality, always wanting to be perfect. Benatar cares deeply for her daughters, and admirably managed to raise them her own way instead of being a hands-off celebrity parent.
Barbra Streisand
As one of the greatest entertainers of all time, it’s surprising that Barbra Streisand had any time to make a family. When she got pregnant at 24, she was scheduled to go on a $1 million singing tour but immediately canceled. While she had a difficult relationship with her own mother, Streisand attempted to be there and support her son Jason. She publicly supported him when he came out as gay, and she’s always helped him advance his career as a performer. He’s appeared in multiple shows that she directed and she’s brought him out on tour with her. They even have a song together called “How Deep Is The Ocean.”
When Streisand speaks about her son, the depth of her love is immediately apparent. Speaking about supporting him in his creative pursuits, she says, “So what a surprise it was a few years ago when he said, ‘I think I feel like singing.’ I said, ‘Fantastic. Why didn’t you do this earlier?’ He was afraid to be compared to me, he said, ‘Until my need to express myself was greater than my fear of it.’ No matter what he does, whether it’s writing or pottery or painting, he’s incredible. We’ve both started painting at the same time now. It was a coincidence. It’s like we’re attached by osmosis, it’s such a bond.”
Katie Rommely Nolan (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn)
As the mother and secondary main character in the 1943 Williamsburg-based coming-of-age book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Katie Nolan is one of Brooklyn’s earliest influential fictional moms. A first generation American from Austrian parents, Katie marries at 17 and becomes a mother shortly after that. She’s forced to trade her youthful exuberance for cold pragmatism as she realizes her husband is incapable of supporting their family. As a proud, resilient, and hard-working mother, she does everything she possibly can to take care of her loved ones, especially so after her husband dies.
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Katie exchanges janitorial services for a rent-free apartment. She knows which butcher has the cheapest bones and which butcher has the cheapest meat. She’s extremely frugal, but she also appreciates the occasional indulgence and gives her children one cup of coffee per day to either drink or dump–the choice is theirs. By allowing them such a choice, she helps them feel less poor than they are. Katie hopes to bring her family out of the poorhouse through education, but she rapidly becomes hardened by poverty. By the time she has her second child, she recognizes he needs her love more than her daughter Francine. As a result, she gives Neelie more of her love. It sounds harsh, but Katie made the practical decision knowing Francine was old and ambitious enough to survive with less love. It’s a difficult decision that many mothers still face today.
Rochelle (Everybody Hates Chris, played by Tichina Arnold)
Rochelle is the tough and witty matriarch of the family loosely based on Chris Rock’s own Bed-Stuy childhood. She demands politeness, good behavior, and loyalty from her children and husband, and is quick to express her discontent when they fail to deliver. When Chris’s sister Tanya asks about Chris’s whereabouts in one episode, Rochelle responds, “His bike got stolen. I told him not to let anybody ride it, so I smacked him into next week. He’ll be back on Tuesday.” Her harsh disciplinarian tactics are frequently a source of humor on the show, but she loves her family deeply no matter how coarsely she shows it.
In one episode, her husband Julius finds a wad of money hidden in her shoe. Rochelle gets extremely defensive when he asks her about it and they argue initially. Later in the episode she reveals that she saves money when she can because she’s afraid of what will happen if he dies. Of course, she goes on to list a comically long list of potential ways Julius could meet his demise and the intimate moment is over. Still, this goes to show the constant worrying she subjects itself to, and partially justifies her tough loving exterior.
Claire Huxtable (The Cosby Show, played by Phylicia Rashad)
Though every mother is different, Claire Huxtable may be the greatest TV mother of all time. She’s a strong woman who prides herself just as much on her law firm partner title as she does on her abilities as a homemaker. In many an episode, Claire serves as the voice of reason and wisdom when the other characters get in trouble or out of line. She’s as beautiful as she is smart, and as tough as she is sweet. In one episode, her daughter Denise’s boyfriend comes over to pick her up and Claire offers to bring him and Bill a cup of coffee while they wait. After he expresses surprise that she “does that kind of thing,” she puts him in his place:
In another episode, Claire speaks on a panel for a talk show with three white men and receives a question about blacks during the Great Depression. When she expresses offense at being there exclusively to speak for black people, the host responds that she’s also there to speak for women, and she replies, “Oh, that’s nice. I am a woman, who is black, but I am also a human being, who is an attorney, a mother of five, and somewhat knowledgeable about history, which is why I thought I was invited here. But when you look at me, this is all you see in me, a black woman?” With quotes like that, Claire was ahead of her time. The Cosby Show first aired in 1984, years before the feminism movement gained any mainstream momentum.
Happy Mother’s Day to everyone in Brooklyn and around the world!
