Lance Armstrong's mom in Tulsa to promote new book

How does a teenage supermarket checkout girl go on to become the mother of one of the world's greatest athletes? It doesn't happen without plenty of bumps along the way. <br/><br/>News on 6 anchor

Tuesday, May 24th 2005, 10:30 am

By: News On 6

How does a teenage supermarket checkout girl go on to become the mother of one of the world's greatest athletes? It doesn't happen without plenty of bumps along the way.

News on 6 anchor Tami Marler spoke with Linda Armstrong Kelly, about raising her famous son, Lance, and raising herself. "I think that because we were so close. I was sixteen when I got pregnant with Lance. Seventeen when I had him, we grew up together."

Linda says, even when they were growing up together, Lance Armstrong had a unique determination, which no one could know would explode into six Tour de France championships. "It was not that he had to win every race. It was, you can do it, and what's your goal? And so he really believed that he could."

In her book, "No Mountain High Enough," Linda Armstrong Kelly talks about raising one of the world's most successful athletes, as both mother and father. "It's very interesting you'll read in my book I've been married several times. I am an overachiever in that area. Married, divorced, married, divorced. But for all intents and purposes, I was a single parent."

In the forward to his mother's book, Lance says Linda taught him to never quit, to make every setback an opportunity and to be a survivor, life lessons that would carry them together through their toughest race. â€œI never ever ever expected getting that phone call. And I really never for one minute would let myself believe that I would lose my only son."

Today, Linda talks with ease about her son's battle with cancer, but it was a difficult time, all part of what's made them both so strong. "I don't take credit for him winning the tour, not at all. But what I do think he got from me was work ethic. I always worked outside the home and he saw that that was important and he knew that whatever he had to do to win, he had to work hard."

You can find Linda Armstrong-Kelly's book, "No Mountain High Enough" in bookstores or you can check out her web site.