miss him much, and I just let it go at that,” she shrugs. “He was weak and I was an ambitious young woman.” She proved it by acting at night in church groups while working as a $49-a-week keypunch operator at a welfare office.

After leaving her husband in New York and moving to Cali with her three kids, her husband William Edward “Sonny” Richmond, died after he was involved in an altercation with someone.

2. Isabel was the only one of her parents’ James Edward and Josephine Sanford, seven children to actually survive past infancy. She was the last born and her other siblings probably were not healthy enough to make it. So sad.

3. Isabel’s mother was extremely religious and made her daughter go to church every Sunday and sometimes on weeknights. When Isabel was a teen, she told her Mom that she wanted to become an actress, but her Mother was not having that, and forbade her to follow her dream because her Mom believed that a career in entertainment was “the road to degradation.” Isabel still followed her own mind, pursued her dream and got her start performing in local clubs…even working her way up to the Apollo Theater.Usually parents know what’s best for their child, but we’re glad Isabel Sanford actually disobeyed her Mom’s rules that one time, or else we would have never had the opportunity to have the loving and powerful Mother TV figure that we came to love as “Weezy.” We also would have never gotten to hear her yell out in her signature raspy voice “George!” Isabel Sanford passed away on July 9, 2004 at the age of 87, after falling ill from a neck surgery she had a week prior. In the end, her life came full circle and it was well fulfilled. Job well done Ms. Sanford, continue to rest well.

-ILoveOldSchoolMusic, Old School news with a new point of view