Once, a few years later, my mother told me “I’m proud of you for what you’ve done for that baby.” I instantly replied “I haven’t done anything. It may well be the dumbest question anyone has ever asked me. “Why do you want to take care of another man’s seed?” is the dumbest of the dumb questions I was asked, by a supervisor of mine, another African American man. Most of my friends and acquaintances, and some of my biological family, questioned that latter decision at the time. Penny’s adoption storyline on Good Times was groundbreaking, and DuBois’ and Jackson’s moving portrayals of a mother and daughter who had found each other planted a seed in my little elementary school head and heart that bore fruit decades later when I named one of my kids Janet (my wife vetoed “Penny” and “Willona”) and with the adoption of my second daughter, Kristina. Only television’s Kunta Kinte / Toby transformation was more powerful TV. To this day, I can’t press my own shirts because of a scene with Jackson, her character’s biological mother (played by Chip Fields, mother of Kim), and a clothes iron. Penny was memorably played by Janet Jackson, in her television debut. ![]() The character wound up adopting Penny Gordon, a child who had been physically abused by her biological mother. No one entered a room like Willona!Īfter Rolle left Good Times and her character was (temporarily) written out of the show, the producers thought it needed another mother figure, and Willona was the obvious choice. While Florida was the (initially) married mom raising three kids in the housing projects of Chicago, Willona was dating lots of men and always looking fine as she breezed in and out of the Evans’ apartment. Two different parenting decisions of mine are directly tied to her work.ĭuBois’ Willona was a high spirited, free-wheeling woman, in contrast to her friend Florida Evans, played by Esther Rolle. With DuBois’ passing, I realize she was much more than that to me. But the actress was best known for her portrayal of Willona Woods, the sassy neighbor, on another Lear production, CBS ’ Good Times. She also was a star of the stage, having performed with the likes of Louis Gossett Jr. ![]() ![]() If you’ve gotta go - and we all do - that’s a good way to do it.ĭuBois was the co-writer and vocalist behind “Movin’ On Up,” the theme song to one of Norman Lear’s classic sitcoms, The Jeffersons. DuBois appears to have died of natural causes, in her sleep. Media reports in her age at the time of her death vary. The world lost a gifted actress, singer, and songwriter this week with the passing of Ja’Net DuBois.
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