35 Facts About LaWanda Page

LaWanda Page reprised the role in the short-lived television shows Sanford Arms and Sanford.

LaWanda Page costarred in the 1979 short-lived series Detective School.

LaWanda Page was born Alberta Richmond on October 19,1920 in St Louis, Missouri.

LaWanda Page was the daughter of Willie Richmond and Estella Small.

LaWanda Page knew from a young age that she wanted to work in show business.

LaWanda Page's family moved to St Louis, Missouri, and she attended Banneker Elementary School, where she met Redd Foxx, two years her junior.

LaWanda Page began her career as a performer at age 15 in St Louis, where she learned to fire dance.

LaWanda Page burned herself frequently in her early days, although never badly.

Once there, LaWanda Page took a gig dancing and waiting tables at the Brass Rail Club, where she remained for 15 years.

LaWanda Page toured her fire-dancing act and made appearances at nightclubs across the country and world, including Canada, Brazil and Japan.

In Los Angeles, LaWanda Page developed the feisty approach to comedy that would make her famous.

LaWanda Page performed as herself after her Sanford and Son fame.

Between 1976 and 1978, LaWanda Page appeared as a stand-up comedian on the Dean Martin Celebrity Roast, on which she roasted celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Betty White and Jimmy Stewart.

In 1985, LaWanda Page performed a raunchy set during the all-female stand-up special Women Tell the Dirtiest Jokes.

LaWanda Page had been performing her comedy routine in nightclubs in St Louis and Los Angeles for several years, but had planned to leave show business to return to St Louis to care for her ailing mother.

When one of the show's producers told Foxx that LaWanda Page must be fired before the show could begin taping.

Foxx insisted that LaWanda Page keep the part, threatening to abandon the show if LaWanda Page were fired.

LaWanda Page's Aunt Esther character was a devout churchgoer with a sharp tongue and verbally sparred with Foxx's character Fred Sanford.

The devoutly religious Esther character contrasted sharply with the raunchy, expletive-filled material of LaWanda Page's live act and records.

LaWanda Page continued her role as Aunt Esther on Sanford and Son spinoff Sanford Arms, which followed a new lead character, Phil Wheeler.

LaWanda Page joined the series in 1981 for its second season to reprise her role as Aunt Esther.

LaWanda Page appeared on several episodes of The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts, and over the next two decades occasionally guest-starred on other popular television shows, including Amen, Martin, 227, Family Matters and Diff'rent Strokes.

LaWanda Page costarred as Charlene Jenkins in the short-lived 1979 series Detective School.

LaWanda Page appeared on Circus of the Stars as a fire eater.

LaWanda Page appeared on several songs on the debut album by RuPaul titled Supermodel of the World released in 1993, most notably the dance chart hit song "Supermodel " where she delivered spoken word.

LaWanda Page appeared in several music videos from the album.

LaWanda Page was one of the few women who performed extended spoken word pieces in the black signifying or toasting tradition.

LaWanda Page employed slight impressions to distinguish the characters in her stories, but primarily relayed her tales as an omniscient narrator.

LaWanda Page riffed off her audience, riling them up as she escalated her jokes.

At one rowdy 1989 performance in Richmond, Virginia, LaWanda Page removed her underwear while on stage and auctioned it to the highest bidder in the increasingly rambunctious crowd.

LaWanda Page married her first husband, John Peal, in 1934 at the age of 14, and before he died when she was 19, they had a son, who died in infancy in 1935, and a daughter, Clara.

LaWanda Page was religious and affiliated with the Landmark Community Church during her first years in Los Angeles.

LaWanda Page died of a heart attack following complications from diabetes on September 14,2002 at age 81.

LaWanda Page is interred in an outdoor crypt at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.

LaWanda Page followed in the footsteps of comic Moms Mabley along with carving her own path, making room for generations of future comics.