Family & Fatherhood

Lessons From Famous and Infamous Fathers

THE MAN IN BLACK By John Carter Cash  My father wasn't the perfect ideal of a father, there's no doubt. He struggled. He dealt with addiction throughout his life. But the good in him triumphed. I learned at a very early age that it was of the utmost importance to show honor to your father. It wasn't just something that he told me or taught me by disciplinary measures. It was something that I saw my father display to his parents. I never saw him disrespect my grandfather, even though he may have disagreed with him.

THE PREACHER By the Reverend Franklin Graham  My father became very close with the Nixons. He was fairly close with John F. Kennedy. After the Watergate era, however, he said, "I'm not going to say anything to a politician again unless it's of a spiritual nature. I'm not going to talk with them about political issues, about international issues. I'm just going to keep my mouth shut and speak to them about things that affect their hearts." I've watched him my whole life. He is my example. My father doesn't keep a record of wrongs. If someone hurts him or disappoints him, my father just forgives the person and moves on. I think that's what love is all about.

THE SPY   By St. John Hunt  My father felt used by his superiors. The men at the White House, his boss Charles Colson, and Attorney General John Mitchell saw in him someone who was deeply committed to furthering the aims of democracy around the world, and so he was maneuvered into doing things that, he told me, in his gut he knew were wrong. I learned from him to trust my gut instinct on things. He taught me never to trust other men to put your interests at heart.

THE MURDERER By Lorenzo Carcaterra
When I was 14, I found out that my father had killed his first wife. Nineteen years later, on his deathbed, he opened up to me and told me the story, how he smothered her with a pillow in a jealous rage and did seven years in prison. He wasn't leaving me anything else, he said, and thought of his story as a gold mine. I wrote a book called A Safe Place about my father and his crime, and paid off his debts. He made quite a few horrible mistakes in his life, but he loved me unconditionally and taught me a few things.

THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD By Frank Sinatra Jr.
My father never, ever gave me any specific advice about music. He made it clear to me at a fairly young age that he wanted me to figure things out for myself. Of course, when you're looking for work, it's a little easier when your last name is Sinatra. But he always told me that if I wanted to work in show business, it was going to be uphill all my life. "When you think you're coasting," he said, "that's when you're going downhill."

THE OUTLAW By Juan F. Thompson
When I was a child, I would crawl onto my father's lap in the evenings while he sat in the Morris chair in the living room next to the huge fireplace. He would read fairy tales to me, and when the opportunity presented itself, he would say, "Son, there are some things you should know about women (or love, or fatherhood, or booze)," and I would listen carefully to my father's wisdom with faith and awe.

THE PRESIDENT By Jack Ford
In 1975, I admitted to a reporter that I had smoked pot. It became a big hubbub, very controversial. When the press asked my father, the president, what he thought of it, he said he raised his kids to tell the truth and think for themselves and he saw no reason to change that now. It showed me that he was a man of principle. He didn't just talk the talk. He was also the least pretentious president in modern times and did not wield power for power's sake. He was a principled person who came to the presidency in sort of a unique fashion, which made him a different president for that very reason.