Olympian Carrie Tollefson, chef Brenda Langton, the singing Steeles, the Goldberg trifecta, and other notable Twin Cities mothers and daughters celebrate their unbreakable bond.
May 2009
By Erin Gulden
Going to Great Lengths >>
Olympian Carrie Tollefson and her mother, Ginger Tollefson
Certain topics are off-limits when Ginger Tollefson is having her eye makeup done. At the top of the list: watching Carrie compete in the 1500-meter race at the 2004 Olympic games in Athens. “Oh, now you’ve done it,” Ginger says, fighting off tears when she remembers what it was like to see her daughter step onto the track. “There are just no words,” says Ginger. “I can’t even begin to describe it.” Carrie also starts to tear at the sight of her mom’s emotion. “She is the ultimate cheerleader,” Carrie says.
Carrie and Ginger by the Numbers: 1: Recurring nightmare Ginger has that involves putting on a skimpy Adidas running uniform and racing in place of Carrie. 2: Holes Carrie had in her lungs when she was born. She was rushed from her hometown of Dawson, Minnesota (three hours west), to the University of Minnesota. Doctors didn’t know whether she would ever have full use of her lungs. “Now I use them for a living!” says Carrie. 4: Carrie’s place on the 2006 Sports Illustrated list of the world’s most beautiful athletes, as decided by SI swimsuit models. She ranked behind Maria Sharapova, Gabrielle Reece, and Anna Kournikova. 5: Carrie’s consecutive state individual cross-country championship wins, a national record. She also won the 1997 NCAA cross-country championship for Villanova University. 7: Family members who traveled to Greece to see Carrie compete in the Olympics: mom; dad John, Carrie’s husband, Charlie; and her two sisters and their husbands. |
Sisters with Voices >>
Actresses Jennifer Baldwin Peden and Christina Baldwin, with their mother, Fern Baldwin
By the time Fern and Herb Baldwin welcomed Jennifer and, two years later, Christina into the world, they were already raising six boys in Jordan, Minnesota. So it is no wonder the girls learned to grab attention at an early age, standing on tables and singing for the family. Now the Baldwin sisters often perform together, and Fern is in the audience for nearly every show. “Their voices are a gift from God,” Fern says.
Five Things You Didn't Know about the Baldwins:
1. New moms Christina and Jennifer discovered they were expecting within a week of each other. Christina’s 7-month-old girl Louise is one month older than Jennifer’s son, August. 2. This summer Jennifer and Christina will perform Sister Stories with Nautilus Music-Theater, a collection of four short operas specifically commissioned for them. 3. Fern sang when she was younger, but her vocal chords were damaged during a procedure to remove her wisdom teeth. 4. Theatre de la Jeune Lune founder Dominique Serrand used to tell people the sisters were twins, and when they played Fiordiligi and Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, family members couldn’t even tell them apart. 5. Fern: “I always got a plant for Mother’s Day, whether I wanted one or not!” |
Peas in a Pod >>
Brenda Langton, chef/owner of Cafe Brenda and Spoonriver, and her daughter, Celina Kane
Brenda insists she doesn’t “see it” when people say she and her only child, Celina, look alike. But she’s in the minority. “There is a picture of Mom when she is younger hanging in Cafe Brenda, and people always ask if it’s me,” says Celina. Beyond the physical, it is easy to see the similarities. Mother and daughter share a taste for eclectic and vintage clothing (Corner Store, Anthropologie, and Grethen House), they just finished a cooking video for Children’s Hospitals on preparing healthy meals, and they rarely disagree—except when it comes to Celina’s decision to apply to top-tier colleges on the East Coast, in addition to some closer to home. “We are going to see where things stand when all the acceptance letters come in,” says Brenda. “She doesn’t have to go away, but she might.”
Brenda and Celina’s Tales from the Trade: + On run-ins with celebs at Guthrie neighbor Spoonriver: “Melissa, oh what’s her name, Little House on the Prairie came in to Spoonriver with her big shades on,” says Celina. “I was like, come on.” + When not tending to their own restaurants (Brenda’s husband, Tim Kane, runs the back of the house in both restaurants), the Langton/Kane crew likes Midori’s Floating World Café, Lucia’s, and Tanpopo, but Brenda admits that most of the family’s favorite restaurants, such as dearly departed Auriga, tend to close. + When Brenda was trying to name a new cocktail at Spoonriver made of Citron vodka, cucumber, fresh dill, and Prosecco Splash, both she and Celina—completely independently of each other—suggested the name Grey Gardens. + To hone Celina’s cooking skills, she and Brenda often play a game when Brenda is cooking at their Bryn Mawr home. “When Celina is studying in another room, we play ‘What’s for dinner?’ “ Brenda says. Celina’s job: to guess what Brenda is cooking just by the smells. “She’s pretty darn good!” says Brenda. + There isn’t much time off when you own restaurants, but there is one day Brenda never works—Mother’s Day, traditionally one of the busiest days in the business. “We try to get together with friends, cook, have fun. But I never work,” she says. |
Clean Machines >>
Monica Nassif, president and founder of Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day, and her mother, the real-life Mrs. Meyer,
Thelma Meyer
There is no doubt that Thelma Meyer is proud of her daughter Monica, a marketing executive-turned-creator of Caldrea, a wonderfully fragrant line of high-end cleaning products. But Thelma wasn’t crazy about the price tag. “I told her, ‘$8 for a bottle of soap? I can’t afford that, I’m not going to pay that,’ ” says Thelma, who raised nine children on a shoestring budget in Granger, Iowa. So in an effort to make a more accessible line, Monica, who lives in south Minneapolis, created Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day. Thus Thelma unwittingly became the face of a nationwide cleaning frenzy. Now the pair has a book, Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Home: No-Nonsense Advice That Will Inspire You to Clean Like the Dickens, which has spawned radio and TV appearances and a book tour. “I told her I would do all this, but my grandmotherly duties come first,” says Thelma. “Graduations, recitals, then book signings.”
Household Rules According to Mrs. Meyer:
If you cook, you don’t do the dishes: “So I was always cooking,” says Monica, the third oldest Meyer child. “And I still love to cook.”
No getting your ears pierced until you’re 16: “Monica’s friends were over and things were very quiet upstairs. Sure enough, Monica (who was 15 and volunteering at a hospital) had a sterile needle and was piercing everyone’s ears!” says Thelma. “Mom asked us to pierce her ears a year later,” adds Monica. Clean your plate: “I still ask my girls, Aundrea and Calla, to clean their plates,” Monica says. Waste not, want not: “The girls had to sew their own prom dresses. They could buy any material they wanted as long as they made them and finished them,” says Thelma. “Otherwise it came off the clearance rack.” Minimal makeup: “The girls knew never to wear heavy makeup,” says Thelma. “Yeah, when we were in the house!” Monica adds. |
In Perfect Tune >>
Jearlyn Steele and
Jevetta Steele Dickerson of The Steeles, with mother
Sallie Birdsong and Jevetta’s daughter
Jasmine Dickerson
“We’re a family, but we are also a business,” says Jevetta Steele Dickerson, explaining the sometimes tricky practice of maintaining an award-winning group of five singing siblings—she and Jearlyn perform with brothers JD, Fred, and Billy—for more than three decades. “Sometimes when we are done singing, we have to get down to business.” But with the Steeles, family always comes first, and two family members in particular make sure disagreements never go far. “She’s the boss,” Jearlyn says, pointing at younger sister Jevetta. Then Jearlyn nods to her mother Sallie, “But she’s the general.”
| The Steeles by the Songs:
“Graffiti Bridge”: Jevetta and Jearlyn were back-up singers with Prince for six years and jokingly claim to be the only people who saw the movie that accompanied the hit soundtrack. “Calling You”: Jevetta’s 1987 Academy Award–nominated recording from the Baghdad Cafe soundtrack. “It’s Cold Outside”: Jasmine’s favorite song to sing. The 11-year-old tours with her mom and performs a kid-friendly version of the song at The Steeles’ Christmas show. (Jearlyn’s daughter, Venise Battles, is at Harvard Divinity School.) “Free at Last”: The song the Steele siblings sang at their father’s funeral in 1973. Sallie insists that her children’s voices came from their father. “I only sound good in the shower,” she says. “You Raise Me Up”: A song Jearlyn might sing if she realizes her dream of performing with Josh Groban. “Every time I hear Josh Groban on the radio, I think, ‘I am coming Josh. I will find you and we will sing together,’ ” says Jearlyn. |
Goldberg Variations >>
Corporate director extraordinaire Luella Goldberg, with daughters Martha Goldberg Aronson, senior VP and chief talent officer, Medtronic, and Ellen Goldberg Luger, General Mills VP and exec. dir. of General Mills Foundation
During the photo shoot, the only sound drowning out Martha's ringing BlackBerry was the sound of laughter. These are powerful, respected women with beautiful families, and they don't take a minute of their good fortune__or each other__for granted. "We can do absolutely anything together," says Ellen, and then pauses. "Except go to movies. We can never stop giggling."
A Goldberg Scrapbook: Wellesley College: Luella, Ellen, and Martha all graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wellesley, where Luella later served as acting president. The wedding dress: Luella wore her sister-in-law's wedding dress, as did her twin sister, Dr. Linda Cohen. Ella and Martha wore that same dress on their wedding day. Tennis: Luella and Linda were were city champions in high school. Ellen and Martha played at Wellesley, where Martha was an All-American. Lake Minnetonka: In 1967, Luella and her husband, Dr. Stan Goldberg, bought a cabin on the lake. Through the years, they bought the cabins next door. Now the entire clan__Ellen's and Martha's families, their brother Fred and his wife, Rosalie__pack up their East Isles and Edina homes to move to the lake for the summer. |
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