The House of the Rising Son (& Daughter)

It's probably not fair that children are rarely said to follow in their mom's footsteps, but who cares? That's the way it is. While it may make mothers jealous of fathers, it can't be helped.

Now we have no particular reason to doubt the mother of the new president of the Los Gatos Rotary is a nice lady, but the new president (the second women in eight years) has the distinction of being the first woman to follow her dad's lead. Elizabeth Cilker Smith takes the same office her father Bill Cilker held. She told the Los Gatos Weekly Times it was as if there was no choice: "Smith says her own membership was preordained. 'When I was growing up, I thought everyone's father was in Rotary,' she says. 'When my husband and I became engaged, the first thing my dad asked him was when he planned to join. It's almost ridiculous–we're all a little over the top.' "

Similarly, Randy Waller didn't decide to go into his mom's business. Instead, he took on the task of leading The Country Gentlemen, the band (really an ongoing pastiche of musicians who come together to form a very identifiable style and attitude toward country) that his father Charlie founded in 1957. He wasn't born when the group started, and it wasn't until after his dad's stroke in 2002 that he stepped up from Gentlekid to Gentleman, but his dad's biz was always a part of his life, which you can tell by just listening to the footsteps in the house: