(FORTUNE Small Business) – The lesson of Morris Gold's life: Always listen to your mother. The maker of Gold's horseradish transformed his mother's hunch—that people would pay to avoid grating the tear-inducing tuber—from a way to help support the family in the Depression into Gold Pure Food Products, which produces 17 million bottles of horseradish each year. Gold found maternal inspiration again in the 1970s when he created the popular slogan "We'll do the crying for you," which helped make the Hempstead, N.Y., company a nationally known concern. The man who helped America shed fewer tears died in November at the age of 85. —TAHL RAZ