MARY BRASWELL: Looking back at successful and/or famous people raised by someone other than their birth mothers.

Each week Albany Herald researcher Mary Braswell looks for interesting events, places and people from the past. You can contact her at (229) 888-9371 or [email protected]. Follow @ABH_MBraswell on Twitter.

Not all children are raised by the woman who gave birth to them. On this Mother’s Day, here is a look at some of those kids who went on to be famous and/or successful in life.

— Eric Clapton grew up believing his grandparents were his parents and that his mother, just 16 at his birth, was his sister.

— David Berkowitz, The Son of Sam,was adopted at a few days old after his birth parents divorced during the pregnancy.`

— Johann Sebastian Bach’s parents, Johann Ambrosius Bach and Maria Lammerhirt, both died within eight months of one another. Bach was only 9 years old at the time. He was raised by his oldest brother, Johann Christoph Bach.

— Louis Armstrong was raised by his grandmother, and uncle, and a foster family following his parents’ abandonment at a young age.

— Richard Burton was raised by his sister and her husband following the death of their mother before he turned 2 years old.

— Faith Hill was adopted as an infant and named Audrey Faith Perry. Her adoptive parents, Edna and Ted Perry, raised her with their two biological sons.

— Eric Marlon Bishop (Jamie Foxx) was born in Terrell, Texas, on Dec. 13, 1967. Shortly after his birth, Foxx was adopted and raised by his mother’s adoptive parents. He has had little contact with either of his birth parents.

— From the age of six, Aretha Franklin was raised by her father after her parents separated. A few years later, her mother died.

— Jack Nicholson’s mother was 18 years old, unmarried and uncertain of the father’s identity when Nicholson was born. Her parents agreed to raise Nicholson as their own child without revealing his true parentage. Nicholson was 37 when he discovered the truth.

— Melissa Gilbert was born to a newly engaged couple and was placed for adoption immediately after birth. She was adopted one day later by actor and comedian Paul Gilbert and his wife, dancer and actress Barbara Crane. The couple later adopted a son, Jonathan, who co-starred with his sister on “Little House on the Prairie.”

— John Lennon was born to the youngest of five sisters and a father who went temporarily AWOL while serving in World War II. The oldest of the sisters twice complained to social services about John’s care by her baby sister and he was turned over to the aunt and uncle to raise. The couple had no other children.

— Eleanor Roosevelt’s mother, Anna Rebecca Hall, died from diphtheria in 1892. The next year, when Roosevelt was 9 years old, her father, Elliott, died from the same disease. She was raised from that time on by her maternal grandmother.

— From the age of 10, James Ellroy was raised by his father after his mother was murdered. This event is what started the author’s lifelong obsession with writing crime novels.

— Madonna’s mother, Madonna Louise Fortin, died from breast cancer in 1963 when the singer was just 5 years old. She was raised solely by her father until he remarried in 1966.

— Malcolm X spent the latter part of his childhood either in foster care following his father’s suspicious death and mother’s mental breakdown. He and his siblings secured his mother’s release from the state hospital after 24 years.

— Willie Nelson’s mother left soon after he was born and his father remarried and moved away. Willie and his sister, Bobbie, were raised by their grandparents.

— Lee Majors was adopted by an aunt an uncle at age 2, following the deaths of his parents in unrelated accidents.

— Barbara Stanwyck’s mother died when Stanwyck was just 4 years old. Her father quickly abandoned the family. For a short time, Stanwyck was raised by her older sister, but she later stayed at a series of foster homes.

— Edgar Allan Poe’s father, actor David Poe Jr., abandoned the family when Poe was an infant. His mother, Elizabeth, died from tuberculosis when Poe was just 2 years old. He was raised by a foster family.

— James Garner was raised by various relatives after his mother died when he was 5 years old. He reunited with his father when he remarried a year or so later, but his stepmother left the family when Garner was 14.

— Marilyn Monroe’s mother was mentally unstable and placed her daughter, then known by the name Norma Jean Baker, with a foster family. When Monroe was 7, she was declared a ward of the state. She was raised by her mother’s friend for a few years, but she later spent time in an orphanage, more foster homes, and with other family members.

— James Dean was raised by a variety of relatives after his mother died when he was only 3 years old.

— Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s, was born in 1932 to a young unmarried woman he never knew. He was adopted at age 6 weeks by Rex and Auleva Thomas. After his adoptive mother’s death when he was 5, his father moved around the country seeking work. Thomas spent time with his grandmother, who he credited with teaching him the importance of service and treating others well and with respect.

— Serial killer Ted Bundy was raised by his grandparents, who wanted to hide the fact that he was actually the son of their unwed daughter.

— Jane Fonda was 12 years old when her mother committed suicide. She was then raised by her father, Henry Fonda.

QUIK QUIZ ANSWER: (a) Steve Jobs. “My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.” Note: The other three — Art Linkletter, Gary Coleman and Scott Hamilton — also were adopted.

The biological mother of which of the following signed the final adoption papers after getting a promise that her son would one day go to college?

a) Steve Jobs

b) Art Linkletter

c) Gary Coleman

d) Scott Hamilton

Answer is at the end of Mary’s column.