Cicely L. Tyson (born December 19, 1933 ]is an American actress. Tyson was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, and the Golden Globe Award for her performance as Rebecca Morgan in Sounder (1972). For this role she also won the NSFC Best Actress and NBR Best Actress Awards. She starred in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974), for which she won two Emmy Awards and was nominated for a BAFTA Award.

Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey, DBE (born 8 January 1937is a Welsh singer. She found fame in the mid-1950s and has been called "one of the most popular female vocalists in Britain during the last half of the 20th century".In the US, in particular, she is best known for recording the theme songs to the James Bond films Goldfinger (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), and Moonraker (1979)

Leslie Uggams (born May 25, 1943, New York City) is an American actress and singer, known for her work in Hallelujah, Baby! and the miniseries Roots. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Uggams replaced Patti LuPone as Reno Sweeney in the Lincoln Center revival of Cole Porter's musical Anything Goes on Broadway in March 1989. She had played Reno in a US tour in 1988-1989. Later Broadway roles include Muzzy in Thoroughly Modern Millie (2003 - 2004) and Ethel Thayer in On Golden Pond

Sheila Escovedo (born December 12, 1957), known by her stage name Sheila E., is a Grammy nominated American singer, drummer, and percussionist whose notable collaborators include Billy Cobham, Lionel Richie, George Duke, Prince, Ringo Starr, Gloria Estefan, Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce, Hans Zimmer and Kanye West. Sheila made her recording debut with jazz bassist Alphonso Johnson on "Yesterday's Dream" in 1976. By her early twenties she had already played with George Duke, Lionel Richie, Marvin Gaye,

Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American singer and musician. Franklin began her career singing gospel at her father, minister C. L. Franklin's church as a child. In 1960, at age 18, Franklin embarked on a secular career, recording for Columbia Records only achieving modest success. Following her signing to Atlantic Records in 1967, Franklin achieved commercial acclaim and success with songs such as "Respect", "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" and "Think".

Patricia Louise Holte-Edwards (born May 24, 1944), better known under the stage name Patti LaBelle, is a renowned Grammy Award-winning American singer, author, and actress who has spent over 50 years in the music industry. LaBelle spent 16 years as lead singer of Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles, who changed their name to Labelle in the early 1970s and released the iconic disco song "Lady Marmalade".

Marie Dionne Warwick (born December 12, 1940) is an American singer, actress and TV show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health. Having been in a partnership with songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Warwick ranks among the 40 biggest hit makers of the entire rock era (1955–2012), based on the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles Charts.

Deborrah Kaye “Debbie” Allen (born January 16, 1950) is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, television director, television producer, and a member of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. She is perhaps best known for her work on the 1982 musical-drama television series Fame, where she portrayed dance teacher Lydia Grant, and served as the series' principal choreographer. She is the younger sister of actress/director/singer Phylicia Rashād.

Jo Marie Payton (born August 3, 1950)[1] is an American television actress, and singer, who starred most notably as Harriette Winslow on the ABC sitcom, Family Matters, and its parent series Perfect Strangers. From 2001 to 2005 Jo Marie Payton provided the voice for Suga Mama Proud on Bruce W. Smith's The Proud Family, which reunited her with her former co-star Orlando Brown

Diahann Carroll (/daɪˈæn ˈkær.əl/; born July 17, 1935) is an American television and stage actress and singer. She has had a long, successful career that has spanned nearly six decades. After appearing in some of the earliest major studio films to feature black casts such as Carmen Jones (1954) and Porgy and Bess (1959), she starred in Julia (1968), one of the first series on American television to star a black woman in a non-stereotypical role. Later she created the role of Dominique Deveraux

Diana Ernestine Earle Ross (born March 26, 1944 is an American singer, actress and record producer. Born and raised in Detroit, she rose to fame as a founding member and lead singer of the vocal group The Supremes, which, during the 1960s, became Motown's most successful act and is to this day America's most successful vocal group. she released her debut solo album, Diana Ross, which contained the hits "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough"

Chaka Khan (born Yvette Marie Stevens; March 23, 1953) is an American singer-songwriter whose career has spanned four decades, beginning in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. Often cited as the Queen of Funk, Khan has won ten Grammys and has sold an estimated 200 million records worldwide

Alfre Ette Woodard (born November 8, 1952) is an American film, stage, and television actress. She has been nominated once for an Academy Award and Grammy Award, 18 times for the Emmy Award (winning four), and has also won a Golden Globe Award and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Nancy Wilson (born February 20, 1937) is an American singer with more than 70 albums, and three Grammy Awards. She has been labeled a singer of blues, jazz, cabaret and pop; a "consummate actress"; and "the complete entertainer." The title she prefers, however, is song stylist She has received many nicknames including "Sweet Nancy", "The Baby", "Fancy Miss Nancy" and "The Girl With the Honey-Coated Voice

Pamela Suzette "Pam" Grier (born May 26, 1949) is an American actress. She became famous in the early 1970s after starring in a string of moderately successful women in prison and blaxploitation films like The Big Bird Cage (1972), Coffy (1973), Foxy Brown (1974) and Sheba Baby (1975). Her career was revitalized in 1997 after her appearance in Quentin Tarantino's film Jackie Brown, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress

Delloreese Patricia Early, known professionally as Della Reese (born July 6, 1931), is an American actress, singer, game show panelist of the 1970s, one-time talk-show hostess and ordained minister. She started her career in the 1950s as a gospel, pop and jazz singer, scoring a hit with her 1959 single "Don't You Know?". In the late 1960s, she had hosted her own talk show, Della, which ran for 197 episodes. Through four decades of acting, she is best known for playing Tess the lead role

Loretta Devine (born August 21, 1949) is an American character actress, best known for her roles as Marla Hendricks in the Fox drama series Boston Public, and for her recurring role as Adele Webber on the Shonda Rhimes' Grey's Anatomy, for which she won Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series in 2011. In film, Devine appeared in Waiting to Exhale, The Preacher's Wife, I Am Sam, Urban Legend, Crash, Woman Thou Art Loosed, For Colored Girls, This Christmas and Jumping

Robbie Montgomery began her career in the 1960s as an Ikette. The Ikettes was the backing group for soul duo sensation Ike & Tina Turner. After her lung collapsed and she could no longer sing, Robbie took her mother's soul food recipes, and created "Sweetie Pie's" Welcome to Sweetie Pie's is an American reality television series starring the family of former Ikette Robbie Montgomery, and also focuses on the running of their collection of soul food restaurants, Sweetie Pie's. The series premiered

Anna Mae Bullock (born November 26, 1939), known by her stage name Tina Turner is a singer, dancer, actress, and author, whose career has spanned more than half a century, earning her widespread recognition and numerous awards. Born and raised in the American South, she is now a Swiss citizen. She began her musical career in the mid-1950s as a featured singer with Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm, Her introduction to the public as Tina Turner began in 1960 as a member of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.

Shirley Ann Caesar-Williams, known professionally as Shirley Caesar (born October 13, 1938, Durham, North Carolina) is an American Gospel music singer, songwriter and recording artist whose career has spanned over six decades. A multi-award winning artist, with eleven Grammy Awards and seven Dove Awards to her credit, she was known as "First Lady of Gospel Music" and now the "Queen of Gospel Music

Whoopi Goldberg (/ˈhwʊpi/, born Caryn Elaine Johnson; November 13, 1955) is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host. Although Goldberg made her film debut in the avant-garde ensemble film Citizen: I'm Not Losing My Mind, I'm Giving It Away (1982), her breakthrough role was playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South in the period drama film The Color Purple (1985).

Suzanne de Passe (born July 19, 1946) is an American television, music and film producer as well as the co-chairman of de Passe Jones Entertainment Group. Suzanne also brought to life the movies The Temptations, The Jacksons: An American Dream, Sister, Sister, Smart Guy among other top rated shows.

Gladys Maria Knight (born May 28, 1944), known as the "Empress of Soul" is an American recording artist, songwriter, businesswoman, humanitarian and author. A seven-time Grammy Award-winnershe is best known for the hits she recorded during the 1960s and 1970s, for both the Motown and Buddah Records labels, with her group Gladys Knight & the Pips, the most famous incarnation of which also included her brother Merald "Bubba" Knight and her cousins Edward Patten and William Guest.

Brenda Holloway (born June 21, 1946) is an American singer and songwriter, who was a recording artist for Motown Records during the 1960s. Her best-known recordings are the soul hits, "Every Little Bit Hurts", "When I'm Gone", and "You've Made Me So Very Happy." The latter, which she co-wrote, was later widely popularized when it became a Top Ten hit for Blood, Sweat & Tears. She left Motown after four years, at the age of 22, and largely retired from the music industry until the 1990s.

Candi Staton (/ˈsteɪtən/; born Canzetta Maria Staton; March 13, 1940, Hanceville, Alabama) is an American soul and gospel singer, best known for her 1970 remake of Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man" and her 1976 disco chart-topper "Young Hearts Run Free". In Europe, her biggest selling record is the anthemic You Got The Love from 1986 released in collaboration with The Source. Staton was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame.

Marilyn McCoo (born September 30, 1943) is an American singer, actress, and television presenter, who is best known for being the lead female vocalist in the group The 5th Dimension, as well as hosting the 1980s music countdown series Solid Gold. Since 1969 she has been married to singer Billy Davis, Jr., the founder and co-member of The 5th Dimension.

Darlene Love (née Wright; born July 26, 1941) is an American popular music singer and actress. She gained prominence in the 1960s for the song "He's a Rebel," a No. 1 American single in 1962, and was one of the Phil Spector artists who produced a celebrated Christmas album in 1963. In the late 1980s and 1990s, Love also began an acting career, playing Danny Glover's wife Trish Murtaugh in the four Lethal Weapon movies.

Roseanne Cherrie Barr (born November 3, is an American actress, comedian, writer, television producer, director, and 2012 presidential nominee of the California-based Peace and Freedom Party. Barr began her career in stand-up comedy at clubs before gaining fame for her role in the sitcom Roseanne. The show was a hit and lasted nine seasons, from 1988 to 1997. She won both an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her work on the show.

Ronnie Spector (born Veronica Yvette Bennett, August 10, 1943) is an American rock and roll and popular music vocalist. She was lead singer of the 1960s hit-making girl group, the Ronettes. She has been called the original "bad girl of rock and roll"

Gloria Hendry (born March 3, 1949), also known as Gloria Henry, is an American actress. She is not, however, the first African-American Bond girl; that title went to Trina Parks. When the film was first released in South Africa, her love scenes with Roger Moore were cut out because it was prohibited by the Apartheid government. She later starred in several 1970s blaxploitation films, including the 1973 film Black Caesar and its sequel, the 1973 film Hell Up in Harlem.

Gloria Richetta Jones (October 19, 1945, Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American singer-songwriter from Los Angeles, California. She recorded the 1964 song "Tainted Love", later a hit for the British synth-pop duo, Soft Cell. She was the girlfriend of glam rock artist Marc Bolan of the band T. Rex until his death in 1977.

Kim Weston (born December 20, 1939) is an American soul singer, and Motown alumna. In the 1960s, Weston scored hits with the songs "Love Me All the Way" and "Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)", and with her duet with Marvin Gaye, "It Takes Two".

Margaret Marie "Margie" Joseph (born August 19, 1950) is an American R&B, soul and gospel singer. Her greatest success came in the 1970s with her versions of Paul McCartney's "My Love" and The Supremes' "Stop! In the Name of Love" and a duet with Blue Magic on "What's Come Over Me."

Jody Vanessa Watley (born January 30, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, music maverick and one of music's defining artists. whose music crosses genres from Pop, R&B, Jazz, Dance and Electronic Soul. In 1987, she won the Grammy Award for "Best New Artist." Along with Janet Jackson and Madonna, she ranks as one of MTV Video Music Awards most nominated female artists ever, with six nominations for her ‘Real Love’ video.

Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading, MBE (born 9 December 1950) is a British singer, songwriter and guitarist.[1] Armatrading is a three-time Grammy Award-nominee and has been nominated twice for BRIT Awards as Best Female Artist. She also received an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contemporary Song Collection in 1996. In a recording career spanning 40 years she has released a total of 18 studio albums, as well as several live albums and compilations.

Shirley Murdock (born May 22, 1957) is an American R&B singer-songwriter, who is best known for her 1986 R&B hit single "As We Lay" and for her vocals on Zapp and Roger hit single Computer Love. In 2009, Murdock collaborated with Teena Marie on the song "Soldier", from Marie's album Congo Square.[2] She also appeared in the 2009 stage play A Mother's Prayer, with Johnny Gill, Robin Givens, and Jermaine Crawford.

Shirley Brown (born January 6, 1947, West Memphis, Arkansas) is an American soul singer, best known for her million-selling single "Woman to Woman" which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1975.

Telma Louise Hopkins (born October 28, 1948) is an American singer and television actress. A member of the 1970s pop group Tony Orlando and Dawn, she later starred in several television sitcoms, including Bosom Buddies, Gimme a Break!, Family Matters, Getting By and Half & Half. She currently has a semi-regular role in the series Are We There Yet?

Linda Hopkins (born December 14, 1924 )is an African American actress and blues and gospel singer. She has recorded classic, traditional, and urban blues, and performed R&B and soul, jazz, and show tunes, all with distinction and style since the 1950s.

Brenda Russell (born Brenda Gordon, April 8, 1949, Brooklyn, New York) is an American-Canadian singer-songwriter and keyboardist whose roots are deeply embedded in African-American Music Culture. Known for her eclectic musical style, her recordings have encompassed several different genres, including pop, soul, dance, jazz and adult contemporary. As well as composing and recording her own material, Russell's songwriting and vocal talents have been used by Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder.

Veronica "Randy" Crawford (born February 18, 1952, Macon, Georgia is an American jazz and R&B singer. She has been more successful in Europe than in the United States, where she has not entered the Billboard Hot 100 as a solo artist.[1] She has had multiple top five hits in the UK, including her 1980 number 2 hit, "One Day I'll Fly Away".

Lynda Cheryl Smith-Sunset (born March 11, 1957), known better by her professional name Cheryl Lynn, is an American disco, R&B and soul singer known best for her 1978 disco song, "Got to Be Real".

La Toya Yvonne Jackson (born May 29, 1956) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, television personality, actress, businesswoman, philanthropist, activist and former model. She is the fifth child of the Jackson family. She maintained a career as a singer throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and returned to music in 2004 with her Billboard charting songs "Just Wanna Dance" and "Free the World". An EP called Starting Over was released on June 21, 2011.

Bessie Regina Norris, better known by her stage name, Betty Wright (born December 21, 1953), is a Miami-based soul and R&B singer-songwriter, who won fame in the 1970s with hits such as "Clean Up Woman" and "Tonight Is the Night". A pioneering singer-songwriter and entrepreneur, she remains one of the few black female musicians to produce a gold record on her own vanity label. She is adept at using the whistle register.[

Kathy Sledge (born January 6, 1959), the youngest of five sisters, Carol, Debra, Joni and Kim. She is an American singer who has had several hits on the International Pop and Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, including "Take Me Back To Love Again," which hit #1 in 1992. She is the granddaughter of former opera singer Viola Williams, and daughter to Florez Sledge and former Broadway star Edwin Sledge of dance-tap duo "Fred and Sledge". She is the lead singer of Sister Sledge and enjoyed many pop,

Jacqueline Yvonne "Jackée" Harry (born August 14, 1956), better known mononymously as Jackée, is an American actress and television personality, best known for her roles as Sandra Clark, the sexy neighbor on the TV series 227, and as Lisa Landry, on the sitcom, Sister, Sister. She is noted for being the first African American to win an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.

Oleta Adams (born May 4, 1953, Seattle, Washington) is an American soul, jazz, and gospel singer and pianist.

Patricia Eva "Bonnie" Pointer (born July 11, 1950) is an American R&B and disco singer, most notable for being the next-to-youngest member of the 1970s and 1980s family music group, The Pointer Sisters. She scored several moderate solo hits after leaving the Pointers in 1977, including a disco cover of The Elgins' "Heaven Must Have Sent You" which became a U.S. top 20 pop hit on September 1, 1979.

Alicia Michelle "Miki" Howard (born September 30, 1960) is an American R&B/jazz singer and actress who had a string of Top 10 hit songs in the late-1980s and early-1990s, including "Baby, Be Mine", "Come Share My Love" and "Love Under New Management". "Ain't Nobody Like You" and "Ain't Nuthin' in the World" both peaked at number one on the U.S. Billboard Top R&B Singles chart.

Stephanie Dorthea Mills (born March 22, 1957) is an American R&B, soul and gospel singer, songwriter, and Broadway star. Musical success was elusive until 1979, when signed under the 20th Century Fox Records record label, Mills found her breakthrough in disco music, recording songs such as "Put Your Body In It", "You Can Get Over", and "What Cha' Gonna Do With My Lovin'". The resulting album, What Cha' Gonna Do with My Lovin', was Mills' first gold record.

Linda Clifford (born June 14, 1948, New York is an American R&B, disco and house music singer and actress, who scored hits from the 1970s to the 1980s, most notably "If My Friends Could See Me Now", "Bridge over Troubled Water", "Runaway Love" and "Red Light".

Freda Charcilia Payne (born September 19, 1942] is an American singer and actress best known for her million selling, 1970 hit single, "Band of Gold". She was also an actress in musicals and film, as well as the host of a TV talk show. Freda is the older sister of former Supreme Scherrie Payne.

Beatrice Melba Hill (born October 29, 1945), best known by her stage name, Melba Moore is an American disco, R&B singer and actress. She is the daughter of saxophonist Teddy Hill and R&B singer Bonnie Davis. Moore began her performing career in 1967 as Dionne in the original cast of the musical Hair along with Ronnie Dyson and Diane Keaton. Moore replaced Keaton in the role of Sheila. In 1970, she won a Tony Award for Best Performance Actress in a Musical for her portrayal in Purlie.

Martha Wash (born December 28, 1953) is an American R&B, pop, soul, house singer/songwriter with a career spanning over five separate decades. Known for her distinctive and powerful dramatic soprano voice., Wash has been dubbed The Queen of Clubland due to her ongoing success in the genre with six Dance songs peaking at number one on the American Billboard Charts and a further three Dance songs peaking at number two.

Mary Wilson (born March 6, 1944) is an American vocalist, best known as a founding member of The Supremes, the Motown Label flagship group which charted 33 top forty singles from 1963 to 1976. Wilson remained with the group following the departures of other original members, Florence Ballard in 1967 and Diana Ross in 1970. Following Wilson's own departure in 1977, the group disbanded.

Ora Denise Allen (born July 16, 1939, Belzoni, Mississippi, United States),known by the stage name Denise LaSalle, is an American blues and R&B/soul singer, songwriter, and record producer. LaSalle, who maintains an enormous following in the Deep South, has been recognized as the Queen of the Blues.

Berlinda Tolbert (born November 4, 1949) is an American actress best known for her role as Jenny Willis Jefferson on The Jeffersons. She also appeared in the film Harlem Nights. She was born one day after actor Mike Evans(1949–2006), the original actor who played her boyfriend/husband Lionel Jefferson in The Jeffersons. Tolbert & Mike Evans were both born in North Carolina. Tolbert, Marla Gibbs, Jay Hammer, & Damon Evans (Lionel #2) are the last surviving members of the Jeffersons main cast.

Mildred "Millie" Jackson (born July 15, 1944) is an American R&B/soul singer-songwriter and comedienne. Three of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA for over 500,000 copies.

Ann Peebles (born April 27, 1947) is an African American singer-songwriter who gained celebrity for her Memphis soul albums of the 1970s on the Hi Records label. Two of her most popular songs are "I Can't Stand the Rain" and "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down", which she wrote with her husband, Don Bryant,and radio broadcaster Bernie Miller and were subsequently popularized in cover versions by, among others, Eruption (1978) and Paul Young (1984), respectively.

Martha Rose Reeves (born July 18, 1941 in Eufaula, Alabama) is an American R&B and Pop singer and former politician, and was the lead singer of the Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas. During her tenure with The Vandellas, they scored over a dozen hit singles, including "Nowhere to Run", "Jimmy Mack", and their signature "Dancing In The Street". From 2005 until 2009, Reeves served as an elected council woman for the city of Detroit, Michigan

Natalie Maria Cole (born February 6, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter and performer. The daughter of Nat King Cole, Cole rose to musical success in the mid-1970s as a R&B artist with the hits "This Will Be", "Inseparable" and "Our Love" In the 1990s, she re-recorded standards by her father, resulting in her biggest success, Unforgettable... with Love, which sold over seven million copies and also won Cole numerous Grammy Awards. She has sold over 30 million records worldwide

Mavis Staples (born July 10, 1939 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer, actress and civil rights activist who recorded with The Staple Singers, her family's band.

Evelyn "Champagne" King (born July 25, 1960) is an American R&B, disco and post-disco singer. Some of her best-known songs are "Shame", "Love Come Down", and "I'm in Love". King released her debut album, Smooth Talk, in 1977. It included the song "Shame", which is her only top ten on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #9; the song also reached #7 R&B and #8 on the dance chart. The record was eventually certified gold. Another single from that album, "I Don't Know If It's Right", peaked at #23 on

June Deniece Chandler (born June 3, 1950) known by her stage name Deniece Williams is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and record producer who achieved success in the 1970s and 1980s. Williams is known for hits such as "Free", "Silly", "Let's Hear It for the Boy", "It's Gonna Take a Miracle", and for duets with Johnny Mathis.

Roberta Cleopatra Flack (born February 10, 1939) is an American singer, and musician who is notable for jazz, Pop, R&B, and folk music. She is best known for her classic #1 singles "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His Song", and "Feel Like Makin' Love"; and for "Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You", two of her many duets with the late Donny Hathaway.

Anita Denise Baker (born January 26, 1958 is an American singer-songwriter. Starting her career in the late-1970s with the funk band Chapter 8, Baker eventually released her first solo album, The Songstress, in 1983. In 1986, she rose to stardom following the release of her platinum-selling second album, Rapture, which included the Grammy-winning single "Sweet Love". To date, Baker has won eight Grammy Awards and has five platinum albums and one gold album to her credit

Phylicia Rashād (born Phylicia Ayers-Allen; June 19, 1948) is an American Tony Award-winning actress, singer and stage director, best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the long-running NBC sitcom The Cosby Show. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for this part in 1985 and 1986. In 2004, Rashād became the first African-American actress to win the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, which she won for her role in the revival of A Raisin in the Sun

Carla Venita Thomas (born December 21, 1942, Memphis, Tennessee, United States) is an American singer, who is often referred to as the Queen of Memphis Soul. She is the daughter of Rufus Thomas.

Marla Gibbs (born Margaret Theresa Bradley; June 14, 1931) is an American television and film actress and singer. She is best known for playing Louise and George Jefferson's maid, Florence Johnston, on The Jeffersons, joining the cast in the show's fourth season. She also starred in the show's spin-off Checking In. Since the death of co-star Sherman Hemsley in July 2012, she, Damon Evans and Berlinda Tolbert are the only surviving Jeffersons cast members.

Patrice Louise Rushen (born September 30, 1954) is an American composer, record producer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, music director and vocalist. Her 1982 single, "Forget Me Nots", received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. Rushen had great success on the R&B and dance charts, but "Forget Me Nots" was the only one to crack the Top 40 pop chart.