Conan O’Brien’s Mom
Last night, Conan O’Brien took over from Jay Leno as the host of the Tonight Show. I think one of his first guests should be his mother, Ruth O’Brien, whom I got to know while working at Ropes & Gray in Boston. The second woman partner at the firm, she was welcoming and helpful to new attorneys at the firm. She also, not surprisingly, has a great sense of humor.
Incredibly, she raised six children while pursuing her legal career–her path from Worcester to Vassar to Yale to Ropes & Gray is detailed in this fascinating account from the Stanford Women’s Legal History Project.
I remember Ruth remarking one day that one of her sons was starting a late night television show in New York–and how they hoped it would work out for him. We now know that it did–congratulations!
You have an interesting life, Prof. Kaveny.
I don’t know about that- I spent this afternoon in South Bend with writers’ block playing marbles on-line –but I have run across people who have interesting lives.
Thanks to Mrs. O’Brien, I did get to see one of the early shows of “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.” It was about this time of year, during the Catholic Theological Society of America, which was meeting in New York City. I left a dinner meeting of moral theologians early to get to the studio in time–with a friend of mine from graduate school, now a well-respected medieval theologian, who would kill me dead if I named him. Of course, I thought it was walkable–but failed to account for the difference between long and short blocks. Our tickets said “Guests of Conan”–and we got to meet him for a couple of minutes in the Green Room–it was a huge amount of fun, and Conan was very nice!
That’s the beauty of NYC–you can go from moral theology to show business in a blink of an eye.
Thankyou for this link – and to Heather Peddie for writing the piece. I found it fascinating. And, as a stay at home mum of three kids, previously an academic, who is hoping one day to get back to the workforce it was inspiring to see that someone could take 11 years out and then resume a successful career.