FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The African-American Research Library in Fort Lauderdale has acquired a collection of items that belonged to the late actress Esther Rolle.

The family of the Pompano Beach native, famous for her role as the Evans family matriarch on the popular 1970s sitcom “Good Times,” donated more than 100 items.

The collection includes gowns Rolle wore, an album of her reciting poetry and telling stories, and a black Raggedy Andy doll she endorsed.

“We’re grateful to receive it,” said Alicia Antone, the library’s assistant director. “This will give us an opportunity to showcase one of the greatest African-Americans.”

Rolle often played a maid or poor person, but she was an actress who many thought symbolized the dignity of black people. An NAACP Image Award testified to that.

That award also is included in the collection along with other awards she won during her career.

The library will display the items during its fourth anniversary week in late October. The Esther Rolle exhibit will continue until Dec. 8 and then become part of the library’s permanent special collections.

Esther Rolle was born Nov. 8, 1920, to Jonathan and Elizabeth Rolle. She was the 10th of 18 children, and the first to be born in Florida.

Rolle’s parents came to South Florida from one of the Exuma islands in the Bahamas. They raised their children in Pompano Beach.

Down-to-earth

“She was a star but you wouldn’t know that unless you saw her on TV,” said Janice Rolle, who is married to Esther Rolle’s nephew.

She was “very down-to- earth,” she said. “The life that she portrayed was somewhat of the life that she lived growing up.”

Esther Rolle was baptized at Mount Calvary Baptist Church, Pompano Beach’s first black Baptist church. Her father was one of the church founders, said Rolle’s niece, Kelcina Allen 69, of Deerfield Beach.

Rolle went to Booker T. Washington High in Miami because Pompano Beach didn’t have a high school. She then attended Spelman College in Atlanta between 1941 and 1942.

She started her career dancing in her family’s dance group, Asadata Dafora, named after Dafora, the African dance hero, said Rosanna Carter, one of Rolle’s sisters.

Rolle had no children, although she was married for a short time to Oscar Robinson. She died Nov. 17, 1998, of complications from diabetes. She was 78.


Before she died, Rolle agreed to donate her belongings to a library. The family considered the Northwest Library Branch on Esther Rolle Avenue in Pompano Beach. But it could not house all the materials, so relatives decided to donate the collection to the African-American Research and Cultural Center.

“I thought that was good because she’s a part of Broward and Pompano,” said Pompano Beach community activist Ernestine Price, who knew Rolle’s parents.

The family gave hundreds of items to the library, including plaques, shoes, hair pieces, photos, trophies, even Rolle’s telephone and address books. They also donated books Rolle read, dresses she wore, three Raggedy Andy dolls she endorsed and an album she made in 1972 called The Garden of my Mind.

The Research and Cultural Center is planning a series in December that will use the “Good Times” show to illustrate how poverty and discrimination affect the African-American family’s financial and physical health. The series will run from four to six weeks in the library’s auditorium.

“There are a lot of ailments that black families go through, and we wanted to highlight the show as proof,” Antone said.

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(c) 2006 South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

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AP-NY-08-01-06 1344EDT