Thelma on Good Times

DID YOU KNOW

BernNaDette Stains has Grenadian connection?

In her book, The Last Night, BernNaDette wrote that her father Gregory Talbert Stanislaus was the son of Simeon James Stanislaus and Beatrice Patrice. Both were born in Carriacou one of Grenada’s sister islands. Simeon came from Bellevue on the South side and Beatrice from the Winward side. They were married there in the West Indies and had their first child a son named Cassian. A few years later, Simeon got a job in the United States working on the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. He brought his wife and child to the states and her father Gregory was born on Warren street in Brooklyn. Soon after, a daughter Edith was born.

Reflecting on my dad’s parents, BernNaDette stated that she could recall Grandpa Simeon was a tall man of great stature who stood over six feet two inches and had a muscular built. He was very nice, kind and gentle who always appeared to be happy and easy going. When she would go over to his home, a nice brownstone in Brooklyn, Grandpa would usually be sitting at his window in a big green chair with a pillow to support his back. It seemed like the world revolved around him because they all would gather in the room, while he sat in his chair chatting about the good old days back home in Carriacou.

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Her aunt Edith, Dad’s sister was very close to Grandpa Simeon. She was truly a daddy’s girl. Aunt Edith and her dad managed Grandpa Simeon’s few apartment buildings he owned in Brooklyn. They all deeply loved Grandpa Simeon. She stated that thinking of him always brought a smile to her face. Her time with him was much too short. She was seven years old when he passed away form a heart attack.

Dad’s mom Beatrice remained in the West Indies most of her life. BernNadette recalled that she was ten years old when she came back to the United Sates from Carriacou to visit them one summer. She was a small but strong-willed woman. She did not take any mess from anyone. Her father told her she was a disciplinarian who taught him self respect and dignity, values that she insisted her children follow at all times.

Grandmother Beatrice had a beautiful voice and loved to sing and dance. Her talent was very visible when she visited them that summer. She was so excited she stated because it would be the first time that she met her. Her biggest surprise when she first saw her was her size. She was 4’11 and weighed 105 pounds, exactly her size. She couldn’t stop just staring at her because she was so cute. She was mostly amazed by the way she carried her purse, or back then they called it a pocketbook. She put the straps on her shoulder, the same way they carry purses today.

It was during that summer BernNaDette stated that she learned so much about her dad and his mom. She sat in the living room and watched the two of them together. She had never seen her dad with his mom before. He looked so happy and she guessed that’s the way he was as a kid back in Carriacou. They really looked so cute together and looked just alike. Every day, Dad would play his saxophone and grandma would sing all of the songs she taught him as a boy. They sounded wonderful together. The two of them appeared so happy and she will forever hold that memory of them enjoying their good old days.

She continued saying in her book that her dad spent lots of time in Carriacou and when her dad turned eighteen years old, he returned to the United States. Having been born in New York, he was an American citizen. He joined the Army and served four years before getting an Honorable Discharge. After leaving the Army, he moved in with his father in Brooklyn and enrolled in music school. He trained on the saxophone and became a composer. He played in bands around New York and other cities across the country. He would play for her mom Eula and her grandmother. Mom knew almost as much as he did about music and all the great singers and musicians, but she loved most of all to dance and sing to Calypso music.

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BernNaDette Stanis born Bernadette Stanislaus on December 22, 1953 is an American actress and author. Stanis is best known for her role as Thelma Ann Evans–Anderson, the only daughter of Florida and James Evans Sr. on the CBS sitcom Good Times.

She is the eldest of five children and was born and raised in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York. She attended Erasmus Hall High School and later attended Juilliard School. As a teen Stanis entered Miss Black America pageants, and went on to become Miss Brooklyn, a title with which she became first runner-up in the Miss New York state pageant.

Stanis played the role of Thelma Ann Evans on the CBS sitcom Good Times from February 1974 to August 1979. After the series ended, she made appearances on television shows including, The Cosby Show and What’s Happening Now. She is also the author of four books

BernNadette’s father was ultimately murdered, leaving her, her siblings, and her mother Eula to band together even more, but when Eula’s Alzheimer’s disease began to worsen in her elderly years, so did her memory of those she nurtured and loved the most. Her condition had gotten to the point where Eula could not even recognize her own daughter, the one she so adored and whose acting career she guided. BernNadette recalled one of her most painful memories that occurred with her Mom while the two were spending a quiet evening at home doing what they liked to do often watching an episode of Good Times.

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When mom was in the later stages of Alzheimer’s we were watching Good Times one day, a show she loved to watch. Thelma and JJ were having one of their usual spats when mom turned to me and said, “That’s a cute little old girl.” It was a devastating blow that made all too clear the progression of the disease.

“It hit me so hard that my mother did not know that was really me, and it was she that put me on that show, it was she that gave me the face of Thelma. So, I said right there and then, I am going to use the same face to put on Alzheimer’s and fight with that! I’m going to fight and hopefully educate and make aware of what it is and what this thing has going on, the characteristics of it, and hopefully we can find an answer to slow it down and stop it eventually.”’

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BernNadette’s mother passed away in 2011 and since then, BernNadette has started her foundation, Remembering The Good Times, to educate people about Alzheimer’s disease and raise money for its cure. She is determined to spend her life doing anything she can to use her fame and her face for the cause.

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It is so beautiful to see this Daughter of the Soil determine not to allow her beloved Mother’s death to be in vain. Her purpose on Good Times was to represent an untapped dynamic of a young, beautiful, intelligent African American girl with Grenadian connection, growing up in the ghetto in the projects of Brooklyn NY. Now, her purpose in life is to remind everyone that no matter how tough the fight may get as we walk through our life’s journey, or as we help the journey of a loved one who may be ill, don’t ever forget to remember the Good Times because that will help us to understand and appreciate our current situation, regardless of how bleak things may seem at face value.