MOTHER'S DAY SPECIAL
Stars' Moms Open Up Their Family Albums
TV Guide
May 11-17 1991
By Elaine Warren
Most mothers are proud of their children; some have especially good reason to be. Like beaming moms of four of TV's brightest stars- Crystal Bernard (Helen Chappel on NBC's Wings), Joanna Kerns (Maggie Seaver on ABC's Growing Pains), blair Underwood (Jonathan Rollins on NBC's L.A. Law) and Shanna Reed (Polly Cooper on CBS's Major Dad). All four mothers sent us snapshots of their kids and, on the following pages, share stories about Crystal, Blair, Joanna and Shanna growing up.
Joanna Kerns
Kerns's mother is Marty de Varona:
Joanna was a doer as a child. She was very much a ham, and still is. I remember how she organized her preschool class to do the "Chicken Little" fairy tale. She was a great organizer. She was an excellent student, always cheerful. She still is. She was a firm believer that things will work out, and if not, there will always be something else to do.
For expample, at about 8, she went into swimming and did very well. The fact that her sister was a swimmer [former Olympic champion and current ABC sportscaster Donna De Varona] made her want to be a swimmer, too, I think. But she got infected ears, so I made her quit. Then she had to find something else she wanted to do. So she turned to gymnastics and made the Olympic trials in 1968, but she grew too tall to go on. She was always interested in doing something: she studied piano and ballet.
At UCLA, she decided to be an actress. I raised the roof when she told me she was quitting school to join a traveling production [of the musical Clown Around]. But Gene Kelly used to watch the school's productions, and I talked to him. He said, "Well, she's the type of girl who will always study. She will never be through learning." He more or less convinced me it was all right.
Joanna's a warm and loving daughter. I think I'm prouder of that than anything. We talk every day. Sometimes twice. Sometimes three times.
