LaWanda Page, 81, of `Sanford & Son' fame succumbs in Los Angeles

Jet, Oct 7, 2002

LaWanda Page, known to millions of television fans as Fred Sanford's number-one nemesis Aunt Esther on the hit 1970s series "Sanford and Son," recently died. She was 81.

Page died from complications from diabetes at a Los Angeles hospital. She was born in Cleveland, but constantly told fans that she was raised in St. Louis. Her show business career began when she became a chorus girl. Comedy soon followed.

She reminded JET at the time of childhood friend Redd Foxx's funeral (in 1991) that he gave her the break of a lifetime when he asked her to join him in a new show that producer Norman Lear was putting together on CBS. It was an American version of the British comedy "Steptoe and Son." She said she was asleep when the call came from Foxx, assumed he was kidding as he often did, cursed him out and hung up on him both times. When he jokingly threatened to come over and knock her teeth out, she said she knew he was serious about the job.

She was cast as his feisty, meddlesome sister-in-law, Esther Anderson, in the show that also featured Demond Wilson and premiered in 1973. The show, about a man who ran a Los Angeles junkyard and rooming house, was an instant hit with fans and ran until Foxx left in 1977.

Page maintained her Aunt Esther role in the spinoffs "The Sanford Arms" in 1977 and "Sanford" in 1980. She was also featured occasionally in "The Redd Foxx Comedy Hour" in 1977.

Page was a regular in another short-lived series, "Detective School." In recent years, she was seen in the films Zapped and Friday. Also, she was in the sitcoms "In Living Color," "Martin" and "Family Matters."

Donald Welch, who directed Page in the gospel musical Take It to the Lord ... Or Else, told the L.A. Times: "LaWanda lived the life she loved, and loved the life she lived." That is one of the same phrases she used in recounting to JET her views on Foxx.

She is survived by her daughter, Clara Johnson of Los Angeles, and a sister, Lynn Hamilton. At JET press time, funeral arrangements were incomplete.