Chris Rock-Solid Foundation

This week in the series "That's My Mom," The Early Show has been taking a look at famous Americans through the eyes of their mothers. Tuesday, it is the story of a top entertainer who can trace success to the rock-solid foundation of a loving and supportive family. Co-anchor Rene Syler has the report.

She's the mother of one of brightest stars in the country today.

Decatur Street is an oasis in the middle of the tough Brooklyn neighborhood, Bedford Stuyvesant. And 619 Decatur was an oasis inside that oasis, where Rose Rock raised her family. Her future celebrity son was the oldest of 10 children.

"He is such an awesome human being," she says. "And I know that living here and being surrounded by the people he was surrounded by, and just living the life he lived here — a secure life, a mommy and daddy, a lot of rules."

Rose Rock may have brought up her family in Brooklyn, but she was from South Carolina, the Jim Crow South, as she calls it, where she learned valuable lessons from her mother.

"The one thing she said, and I used to get so sick of her saying it, is you can do anything you put your mind to," Rose Rock says. "And she said that over and over and over. And I'm like, what is this crap?"

It was a strong lesson in motherhood, and a lesson she imparted to all her children.

"They were never allowed to say the word can't," she says. "There are some things you may not do, but there is nothing you cannot do."

So her son grew up without "can't." He honed his writing skills and his sharp sense of humor.

So did he get his sense of humor from his mother?

"I don't think so," Rose Rock says. "He says, but I'm not that funny."

In 1990 at the age of 25 he hit the big time as a regular on "Saturday Night Live." Rose Rock's son, Chris, had arrived.

But did she ever in her wildest dreams think her son would be a household name?

"Yes, I definitely knew that," she says. "I always knew the world would know."

The world would indeed know Chris Rock. And Chris Rock gives credit to both his parents.

"I always say, in my household my mother was the president and my father was the troops," Chris Rock says. "So she kind of made all the decisions but, you know, when things went wrong she'd call in the troops."

Unfortunately, his dad died just as Chris Rock's career was beginning.

"We cried a lot the first few years," Rose Rock says. "Every time Chris would do something he would come off stage and say: 'I wonder did daddy see that?' Even at the Academy Awards, it was like 'Do you think he saw?' And I said, 'It's no way the angels didn't open up a portal and let him see this.' "

What he would have seen was his son become the first black man to host the Academy Awards.

Hollywood may seem a long way from Decatur Street but his experiences there helped Chris Rock create one of the hot new shows on TV: "Everybody Hates Chris."

She isn't surprised that his star just keeps shining brighter and brighter.

"You know, there are still things that he has to accomplish. And he will," Rose Rock says.

Rose Rock said she never imagined her son would be a comedian. She thought he was to going to be a writer. But, she proudly pointed out that the first of his two Emmys was given to him for his writing.