A tribute to 12 of our mothers – mothers of the people. These are women we share, who we named Mother because they cared for us or spoke to us in some special way:
(This is a replay of a blogpost from 2016.)
Mary Harris Jones was born in 1830 in County Cork, Ireland. She lost her family to a yellow fever outbreak and her home in the great Chicago fire. She became a labor activist and was given the nickname “Mother Jones.” She was a campaigner for the United Mine Workers Union, founded the Social Democratic Party and helped establish the Industrial Workers of the World. Jones died in 1930.
http://www.biography.com/people/mother-jones-9357488
Mother Mary is identified in the Bible and in Quran as the mother of Jesus, the founder of the Christian religion. Christians hold her son Jesus to be the Christ or messiah foretold in Jewish scripture, and the God made flesh. Muslims also believe in Jesus as the foretold messiah, but disavow any actual divinity, instead regarding him as one of God’s greatest Messengers. The gospels of Matthew and Luke in the New Testament describe Mary as a virgin. Traditionally, Christians believe that she conceived her son miraculously by the agency of the Holy Spirit. Muslims believe that she conceived her son miraculously by the command of God.
http://www.crystalinks.com/mothermary.html
Ma Barker was born on October 8, 1873, in Ash Grove, Missouri. She had four sons: Herman, Lloyd, Arthur and Fred, who, with Alvin Karpis, formed the Barker-Karpis Gang in 1931. That year, Fred and Alvin shot a sheriff to death. The murder started a pattern of thoughtless killing by the gang. Ma Barker became a wanted woman. On January 16, 1935, Ma and Fred where shot and killed by FBI agents in Oklawaha, Florida.
http://www.biography.com/people/ma-barker-14515515
Born in 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia, Mother Teresa taught in India for 17 years before she experienced her 1946 “call within a call” to devote herself to caring for the sick and poor. Her order established a hospice; centers for the blind, aged, and disabled; and a leper colony. In 1979 she received the Nobel Peace Prize for her humanitarian work. She died in September 1997 and was beatified in October 2003. In December 2015, Pope Francis recognized a second miracle attributed to Mother Teresa, clearing the way for her to be canonized as a saint in 2016.
http://www.biography.com/people/mother-teresa-9504160
Mom Lalonde is the mother and Guardian of Rose Lalonde. While initially introduced as Rose’s mother, she is actually a paradox clone of herself sent back in time as an infant from the present with Mutie. She also provided half of the DNA of both Dave and Rose which was combined with Dave’s Bro’s DNA through Ectobiology. Therefore, she is the only guardian to have the correct title, as she is still genetically Rose’s mother. She is likely either an astronomer, or astrologist, as she is an expert in celestial phenomena.
http://mspaintadventures.wikia.com/wiki/Rose’s_Mom
Ellen McHugh, a poor Irish immigrant to America, finds work in a carnival and is thus able to send her son Brian to a fine school. But when her position is found out, the school expels Brian. Mrs. McHugh feels compelled to allow the school principal and his wife to adopt Brian. The widow McHugh becomes a housekeeper and raises her employer’s daughter Edith, who grows up to fall in love with BrianMcHugh. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019182/?ref_=ttpl_pl_tt
Mother Saraswati is the goddess of knowledge, music, arts and science. She is depicted as beautiful fair Goddess with four arms, representing the four aspects of human personality in learning: mind, intellect, alertness and ego. She has sacred scriptures in one hand and a lotus in the second that symbolize true knowledge. With her other two hands she plays the Veena – the music of love and life. She is dressed in white spotless saree and seated on white lotus that stand for purity and rides on a white swan that stand for purity and discrimination. Saraswati is also the consort of Brahma and her symbolic animal is the peacock.
http://www.vishnumandirmn.com/?page_id=138
Ma (Phoebe Kettle, played by Marjorie Main) is a robust and raucous country woman with a potato sack figure. She is more ambitious and smarter than Pa, but not by much, and can easily be fooled. Ma is content with her role as mother to fifteen rambunctious, mischievous children on their ramshackle farm in rural Cape Flattery, Washington. Because she has so many children, Ma sometimes gets their names confused. A misspelled sign “Be-ware of childrun” is posted in front of the farmhouse to warn unwanted visitors of hurled rocks, projectiles from slingshots and pea shooters, and other missiles launched by the rowdy and unpredictable Kettle brood.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_and_Pa_Kettle
https://youtu.be/w3A6jdY654Y?list=PLJtYAMJw3i-hjdWRQ0q2dgl1P75dwfpks
Mother Goose is often cited as the author of hundreds of children’s stories that have been passed down through oral tradition and published over centuries. Various chants, songs, and even games have been attributed to her, but she is most recognized for her nursery rhymes, which have been familiar with readers of all generations. Her work is often published as Mother Goose Rhymes. Despite her celebrated place in children’s literature, the exact identity and origin of Mother Goose herself is still unknown.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/mother-goose
Born in the Virginia mountains in 1909, “Mother” Maybelle Carter began performing with relatives at 16 under the group name The Carter Family. The group recorded hundreds of songs, including “Wildwood Flower” and “Keep on the Sunny Side.” Their music influenced the direction of country and folk music for decades to come.
http://www.biography.com/people/mother-maybelle-carter-17171706
Archaeological evidence from around the prehistoric world suggests that the Earth may have once been viewed/worshipped as a living, female being. Ancient texts and mythologies support the idea that the primary goddess was intimately associated to the earth, fertility and agriculture. The worship of the Earth-mother was a common belief before the more recent development of the patriarchal society (c. 3,000 BC), coinciding with a shift in focus from Lunar to Solar worship across Neolithic Europe. Traces of a matriarchal society can be seen reaching back into the Palaeolithic period through the numerous Venus figures discovered in Europe. The early mother-earth belief system also had close connections to the beliefs in the afterlife.
http://www.ancient-wisdom.com/earthmother.htm
Old Mother Hubbard
Went to the cupboard
To get her poor dog a bone;
But when she got there,
The cupboard was bare,
And so the poor dog had none.
She went to the baker’s
To buy him some bread;
And when she came back,
The poor dog was dead.
She went to the joiner’s
To buy him a coffin;
And when she came back, . . . .
http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/74/nursery-rhymes-and-traditional-poems/5306/old-mother-hubbard/
HoCoMDcc 