When George Washington's mother, Mary Ball Washington is recalled at all, she is portrayed as self-centered and crude, a trial and an obstacle to her oldest child. But the records tell a very different story, argues Martha Saxton, who chronicles how Mary—a widow deprived of most of her late husband's properties—struggled to raise her children, but managed to secure them places among Virginia's elite. In her later years, she and George had a contentious relationship, often disagreeing over money, yet Saxton suggests that Mary had a greater impact on George than mothers of that time and place usually had on their sons, molding him into a frugal, pious, self-reliant man who would render incomparable services to his country.