The 'Misery' actress won the Academy Award for best actress in recognition of her role as Annie Wilkes in the 1990 thriller, but her mother was unimpressed by the accolade.
Speaking on 'CBS Sunday Morning', she recalled: "When I won the Oscar for 'Misery,' [my mother] said, 'I don't know what all the excitement [is] about, you didn't discover the cure for cancer.' "
The 76-year-old star added that she forgot to thank her mother in her acceptance speech, but interviewer Ben Mankiewicz played a video to show that she actually did.
The 'American Horror Story' actress fought back tears of relief, insisting her mother "should have had my life". She said: "When she died, I said come into me. I wanted her spirit to come into me".
"Even though we had so many difficulties, I wanted her spirit to come into me and enjoy everything I was enjoying because of what she'd given up."
Kathy revealed how her parents delayed their retirement so they could fund her college tuition. She explained: "My father literally had a heart attack after two or three years of giving up... he had to spend a fortune we didn't have to send me to Southern Methodist University, and went to work when he was in his 70s. They gave up so much."
Meanwhile, Kathy recently clarified her stance on her own retirement after describing her stint in the upcoming 'Matlock' reboot as her "last dance" following a disappointing movie shoot. However, she told Entertainment Weekly: "What I meant was, I had one foot out the door until I read the script for 'Matlock'.
""And then I read Matlock and I said 'Ooooooookay, close the door. We're gonna do some more.' I want it to run for years. It's that great."