Weekly Column:   –  “Mothers Day is an excellent time to consider the women who played vital roles in the formation of our great country.  We might call them our Founding Mothers, and none among them is more important to the long, rich history of our nation than Mary Ball Washington, the mother of our first president.

Mary Ball Washington of Fredericksburg, Virginia, raised her eldest son, George, and his four siblings, pretty much alone.  She was widowed at the age of 35 when her second husband, Augustine Washington, passed away.  By all biographical accounts, she was a stern parent and an independent spirit.  She didn’t participate in the Fredericksburg social scene.  Mary Washington is most celebrated in history for guiding young George Washington through the first years of his great life.

While the son she raised was exceptional, many of the characteristics of Mary Washington’s parenting may sound pretty familiar.  Mary would take her son fishing, and she baked a famous gingerbread which historians are sure George enjoyed.  She emphasized his education, though the ground rules of her house were based in sternly-dispensed common sense.

But the most important of her acts in our first president’s life was forbidding her son’s great wish to join the British Navy.  Just think, if young George Washington had won this argument with his mother, the father of our country would have followed a much different path from the celebrated career which was essential to the foundation of the United States.

Instead, Mary Washington’s son went on to fight in the French and Indian War, to attend the First and Second Continental Congresses, to serve as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and to be elected first President of the United States.

Good son that he was, George Washington purchased his mother a home in Fredericksburg when he thought the family farm was too much for her.  Mary Washington lived to see her son inaugurated as president, and passed away, in 1789.  The Marquis de Lafayette visited her in Fredericksburg, and he would return after her death to pay his respects at her grave site.

Today, books document Mary Washington’s life, museums preserve parts of her past, and the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg bears her name.  Sites around the state of Virginia point out the places relevant to her life.  And despite the fact that Mothers Day did not yet exist during Mary Washington’s lifetime, we should remember her on this important day for the essential lessons she imparted to the leaders of our nation in its earliest days. 

Here is what her son said about her: “My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw.  All I am I owe to my mother.  I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.”  As we all take time to honor our mothers this weekend, I hope that touching sentiment rings true in every American’s heart.

Happy Mothers Day, and thank you, Mary Washington.”