Is there literature support for the 'pop' claim that people "marry their parent"/choose a partner with traits similar to their parent(s)?
Yes, much literature supports this notion. Mary Ainsworth's attachment theory has a lot to say about parental attachments and how important they are for future growth; this journal article is directly related to your query. There is also related research in evolutionary psychology, see this and this.
As for why we get attracted to parental traits: the most popular explanation is sexual imprinting, which comes from evolutionary psychology: as the human species evolved, the humans who learned early on what humans looked like were more likely to mate with the same species and pass on their genes, leading to an evolutionary benefit for learning traits from your parents.