For These Stars, Mom Rules

In recent years, Graves-Kenner has taken pleasure in caring for granddaughter Ella-Thais, almost 4, while Graves performs, bringing the loving attention of "Nana" to faraway stages and sets.

Graves is grateful. "What is impressive to me about this is her flexibility and openness to assimilate into my world, which is so foreign to her, different languages, cultures, people, currency, time zones, lifestyles etc.," Graves wrote in an e-mail. "And she does so with great heart and enthusiasm."

She added: "You don't have enough space for this article for me to sing of her wonderful attributes. She is a mighty woman."

Talking about her experience of motherhood, Graves-Kenner is quick to say she is equally proud of her other children: Willie Andre Graves, a manager in a grocery store; and Debora Martin-Platt, a mortgage consultant. Both have settled in West Virginia, and Graves-Kenner sees them frequently. She has seven grandchildren.

Celebrity, Graves-Kenner said, has allowed Graves to be generous with her family, but it has not changed the family's their closeness. At one point, Graves-Kenner said, she worried about calling Graves, thinking she would be too busy.

When Graves heard of that, she set her mother straight. "What are you talking about?" Graves-Kenner recalled her asking. "You pick up the phone and you call me."

At the opening of Nationals Park, Graves-Kenner stood just a few feet from her daughter, beaming as she sang.

"It just gave me chills," Graves-Kenner said, recalling the thrill of hearing Graves reach for, and find, seemingly impossible notes. Every once in a while, she said, she still asks herself: "Is that my daughter?"

NFL Mom Is Her Son's Biggest Fan

In the well-appointed home of Washington Redskins cornerback Shawn Springs, one wall near the stairs is adorned with a striking black-and-white photograph of a woman and a boy sitting on a park bench. The boy, wearing knee socks, is so small his feet do not reach the ground.

This is Springs at 2 and his mother, Teresa Thomas. About 30 years later, the photograph hangs in both of their homes -- Springs's in McLean and his mother's in Ashburn -- a portrait of ordinary life, before there was any flash of the celebrity of professional sports.

"It's a reminder of where we started," Thomas said.

In recent years, life has been very different. After a standout career at Ohio State University, Springs was the third overall pick in the first round of the 1997 NFL draft. He played for the Seattle Seahawks until 2003, then signed with the Redskins.