Famous Mothers all over the World

The hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world. And rightly so. Throughout history, there has been no dearth of mothers who have not only looked after their children but also played an important role in bringing a change in the lives of many people around the world. In a male dominated society, these women have carved a special place for themselves by the strength of their resolve and determination, paying equal attention to their activities in and out. They have earned a name for themselves in the process. They are the famous mothers.
Angelina Jolie
A blend of motherhood, talent and immense possession - that aptly sums up Angelina Jolie. One of the highest paid Hollywood actresses and a top global celebrity, Jolie is a woman who values her relationship and believes her children are the best thing ever happened to her. Kickstarting what would become a Hollywood trend, Angelina adopted two children, Cambodian orphan Maddox and Ethiopian Zahara, who lost her parents to AIDS. Jolie has become famous for her charitable impulses: she was named a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees in 2001. In July 2006, Angelina travelled to Namibia with partner Brad Pitt where she gave birth to their daughter, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt. Jolie feels life should be led by making own ways. She loves different elements of life and knows how to manage both work and family. Recently, the couple has adopted a Vietnamese kid named Pax Thien and increased their family size.
Madonna

Another famous mom we come across is Madonna. She is not only an icon but also a loving mother. Madonna always created special principles for her and her daughters. She is a singer, author, actor and a perfect mother. Her profession in the showbiz has not, however, come in the way of her becoming a strict mother to her children. Having lost her own mother to cancer as a little girl, Madonna hopes that her children never feel the same pains that she went through. She hopes to be the perfect mother not only to her own kids Lourdes and Rocco, but also to David Banda, whom she adopted in October 2006 as a motherless 13-month-old child from the African country of Malawi.
Indira Gandhi

The first woman to become the Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, daughter of late Prime Minister Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, was popularly called the 'Iron Lady of India' for her dominant and highly influential nature. She emerged not only emerged as a courageous leader and a dictator but also as an ever loving mother. Being a mother of two, Sanjay and Rajiv, she never set behind in performing her duties well. One cannot forget her excellent role in forming 20th century India. Even the tragic death of her younger son Sanjay Gandhi (in 1980) couldn't come in the way of her governance. She continued to rule the nation with sincerity before being assassinated by her own bodyguards in 1984.
Catherine Zeta Jones

The Oscar winning Welsh actress was always fascinated by the notion of motherhood. In fact, such was her keenness to be a mother, that she started a family even before she married Michael Douglas in 2000. Their son Dylan Michael was born three months before their wedding. Catherine became the target of anti-tobacco groups in 2003 when she was pictured smoking whilst pregnant with her daughter Carys Zeta.
Motherhood is certainly one of the best things to have happened to her. When she was preparing for her role in the multi-award winning "Traffic", she was carrying Dylan, and as per her own admission, a lot of the emotions and instincts that she used in preparing for her character came from her maternal instinct of protecting her young one. "When he was born it just blew my mind away that a complete little stranger would fill me with this overwhelming desire to nurture and protect him, and I would go to such big lengths to do that" she said once.
Queen Elizabeth II

Where there is a reigning queen, there is often also a mother. Unarguably one of the most famous mothers, Queen Elizabeth II, the reigning monarch over most of the British Commonwealth (since 1952), is often credited - along with her mother, Elizabeth the Queen Mother - with being a firm backbone for the royal family during a century of singular upheaval. In fact, the Queen Mother was often seen as being a mother to her people. Elizabeth II was proclaimed queen on 6 February 1952 following the death of her father, George VI; she was formally crowned the next year, on 2 June 1953. Her husband, Prince Philip, comes from the royal family of Greece and was created Duke of Edinburgh prior to their wedding on 20 November 1947. With Philip, she has four children: Charles (b. 1948), Anne (b. 1950), Andrew (b. 1960) and Edward (b. 1964). A loving mother to all her children, the maternal image of the queen is loved, respected and discussed more than her royal status.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

The matriarch of the Kennedy political family is perhaps most famously known for her devotion to her children. The wife and then widow of U.S. president John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis remains an American icon of high style and grace. Born in 1929 as Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, Jackie, as she was popularly called, married in 1953 the then U.S. senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy. When Kennedy was elected president in 1960, Jacqueline became a popular First Lady, known for her elegant sophistication and her historical interest in the White House. She was made a widow when Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963. She and John Kennedy had two children, Caroline (b. 1957) and John Jr. (b. 1960); a third child, Patrick, was born on 7 August 1963, but died two days later. All her life a political wife and then a political mother, Jacqueline managed to transcend the traditionally understated role to leave her distinct mark upon a generation of Americans.


Other Famous Celebrity Mothers Around the World



* Rose Kennedy (strong mother of President John F. Kennedy)

* Margaret Thatcher (mother, first woman Prime Minister of Britain)

* Celine Dion ("test tube" mom, music star)

* Barbra Streisand (mother, singer, actor, director, producer)

* Marie Osmond (biological and adoptive mother of 7, singer)

* Bobbi McCaughey (mother of sextuplets)

* Anne Morrow Lindbergh (mother of 6, writer, wife of aviator Charles Lindbergh)

* Julia Roberts (new mother of twins, Academy Award-winning actor)

* Teri Hatcher ("desperate" mom, actor)

* Barbara Walters (adoptive mother, TV journalist)

* Lucille Ball (funny mom, TV star, business woman)

* Chris Evert (athlete mom, three-time Wimbledon champ)

* Florence Griffith Joyner (athlete mom, triple Olympic gold medalist)

* Cindy Crawford (supermodel mom)

* Toni Morrison (mother, writer, first African American to win the Nobel Prize in literature)

* Ruth Bader Ginsburg (mother, Supreme Court Justice)

* Wilma Mankiller (mother, first woman Chief of the Cherokee Nation)

* "Mother" (Mary Harris) Jones (mother, labor leader)

* Clara Barton (founder of the Red Cross and "mother" to thousands of wounded soldiers)

* "Mother" (Clara McBride) Hale (mother, started Hale House in Harlem to care for infants born to drug-addicted mothers)

* Grandma Moses (mother and grandmother, and a famous painter who started painting in her 70s)

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje on August 26**, 1910. Her family was of Albanian descent. At the age of twelve, she felt strongly the call of God. She knew she had to be a missionary to spread the love of Christ. At the age of eighteen she left her parental home in Skopje and joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with missions in India. After a few months' training in Dublin she was sent to India, where on May 24, 1931, she took her initial vows as a nun. From 1931 to 1948 Mother Teresa taught at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta, but the suffering and poverty she glimpsed outside the convent walls made such a deep impression on her that in 1948 she received permission from her superiors to leave the convent school and devote herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. Although she had no funds, she depended on Divine Providence, and started an open-air school for slum children. Soon she was joined by voluntary helpers, and financial support was also forthcoming. This made it possible for her to extend the scope of her work.


On October 7, 1950, Mother Teresa received permission from the Holy See to start her own order, "The Missionaries of Charity", whose primary task was to love and care for those persons nobody was prepared to look after. In 1965 the Society became an International Religious Family by a decree of Pope Paul VI.
Today the order comprises Active and Contemplative branches of Sisters and Brothers in many countries. In 1963 both the Contemplative branch of the Sisters and the Active branch of the Brothers was founded. In 1979 the Contemplative branch of the Brothers was added, and in 1984 the Priest branch was established.
The Society of Missionaries has spread all over the world, including the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. They provide effective help to the poorest of the poor in a number of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and they undertake relief work in the wake of natural catastrophes such as floods, epidemics, and famine, and for refugees. The order also has houses in North America, Europe and Australia, where they take care of the shut-ins, alcoholics, homeless, and AIDS sufferers.
The Missionaries of Charity throughout the world are aided and assisted by Co-Workers who became an official International Association on March 29, 1969. By the 1990s there were over one million Co-Workers in more than 40 countries. Along with the Co-Workers, the lay Missionaries of Charity try to follow Mother Teresa's spirit and charism in their families.
Mother Teresa's work has been recognised and acclaimed throughout the world and she has received a number of awards and distinctions, including the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize (1971) and the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international peace and understanding (1972). She also received the Balzan Prize (1979) and the Templeton and Magsaysay awards.
Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997.