Kin Characters

Vernice, called Niecy by Annie, is a motherless girl raised by Aunt Irene in Honeysuckle who grows up to attend Spelman and marry into the McHenry family. She is Annie's cradle friend and closest confidante, and she risks scandal and safety to help Annie at the end of Annie's life.

Arc: She moves from a silent, jealous child haunted by her dead mother into a married woman who must reconcile her hidden past with the McHenry name. After Annie's death, she confesses her secrets to Franklin and chooses truth over concealment.

• Annie Kay Henderson — her cradle friend and best friend
• Aunt Irene — the aunt who raised her
• Arletha — her murdered mother
• Franklin McHenry — her suitor and later husband
• Joette Cunningham — her Spelman roommate and secret lover
• Mrs. McHenry — her mother-in-law and guardian of respectable protocol

Annie is Vernice's cradle friend, abandoned as a baby by her mother Hattie Lee and raised by Granny. She runs away to Memphis, works at the Elektra bar, loves Bobo, and spends much of her adult life searching for the mother who left her.

Arc: She transforms from a hopeful, waiting girl to an independent woman who finds and loses love, learns her mother is alive after a false death report, and finally dies of internal bleeding after an illegal abortion.

• Vernice "Niecy" Davis McHenry — her cradle friend and 'her person'
• Hattie Lee — her absent mother
• Irvina Henderson — her grandmother who raised her
• Bobo — her lover and later fiancé who leaves her
• Babydoll — her loyal friend and fellow worker
• Lulabelle Simms — a madam who gives her mother-love
• Mr. Wilson — the married boss who fathers her pregnancy

A gasman in Kinder who tells the bus driver that Vernice is his sister's girl and mentally unstable. He hits her, proposes marriage, and slaps her when she refuses.

Arc: A one-scene predator whose violence strands Vernice at the filling station until Carmen intervenes.

• Vernice "Niecy" Davis McHenry — the girl he tries to trap and marry
• Mr. Isaac — a gas-station acquaintance
• Carmen — his aunt by marriage

The bus driver who strands Vernice in Kinder, refusing to return her ticket and driving off with her suitcases aboard the bus. He uses racial abuse and enforces Jim Crow seating.

Arc: No arc; he briefly derails Vernice's journey to Spelman.

• Vernice "Niecy" Davis McHenry — the passenger he strands
• Larry — a gas-station acquaintance

Annie's mother, called trifling, who left Annie with Granny as a baby and disappeared to Memphis. She evades Annie when Annie comes to her door and later appears briefly at the Elektra, saying only that not everything can be fixed.

Arc: She remains elusive to the end; a false report of her death and her actual survival shape Annie's grief and final choices.

• Annie Kay Henderson — the daughter she abandoned
• Irvina Henderson — her mother
• Mr. Daniel — the man who once sent her to beauty school
• Annie Kay — her other daughter, born later
• Sweet — her former landlord and friend

Vernice's aunt and guardian, who raises her in Honeysuckle after Arletha is murdered. She is blunt, religious, and warns Vernice never to let a man murder her, and later leaves for Dayton after Van's death.

Arc: She raises Vernice, sends her to Spelman, then departs for Dayton; her letters and admonitions continue to shape Vernice's sense of family and duty.

• Vernice "Niecy" Davis McHenry — her niece and adopted child
• Arletha — her dead sister
• Josiah "Van" — her deceased man in Dayton
• Vertena Irene — her mother

Vernice's mother, murdered by Vernice's father before the story begins; she exists in photographs and visits Vernice one night as a spirit. Her death is the wound at the center of Vernice's identity.

Arc: She is dead throughout the story, but her memory and unresolved grief haunt Vernice from childhood to marriage.

• Vernice "Niecy" Davis McHenry — her daughter
• Aunt Irene — her sister
• Vertena Irene — her mother

Lulabelle runs the brothel on a former farm where the runaways first land, and later takes Annie back in when Annie returns pregnant. She is exacting, superstitious, and capable of rough mother-love.

Arc: She warns Annie not to return, then helps her anyway; at the end she claims Annie as her next of kin and gives Annie a place to die.

• Annie Kay Henderson — the girl she calls the closest thing to mother-love
• Lurelia Dubose — her twin sister
• Babydoll — one of her girls, whom she calls Ruth Ann
• Delia — the girl who calls her 'Mama'
• Hortense — her mother, remembered in the rose garden

Clyde's cousin and later Annie's lover; he travels to Memphis with the group, works at the Peabody hotel, and plays piano with Luster Lee's band. He proposes to Annie, then leaves her for a college student named Regenia.

Arc: He moves from loyal fellow traveler to Annie's fiancé, then abandons her; after Annie's death he exists only in her memory as an absence she still misses.

• Annie Kay Henderson — her lover and later fiancé who leaves her
• Clyde — his cousin
• Babydoll — his in-law and fellow traveler
• Regenia — the woman he leaves Annie for
• Isaiah — the man he punches after the confession

Babydoll begins as Clyde's lover and Annie's rival, then becomes Annie's closest friend and coworker at the Elektra. She drives Annie to Atlanta, fights for her, and stays with her through the final abortion crisis.

Arc: She moves from sharp-tongued rival to loyal friend and wife, and she carries Annie through the last months of Annie's life.

• Annie Kay Henderson — her friend and later charge
• Clyde — her on-and-off lover and husband
• Lulabelle Simms — the madam who calls her Ruth Ann
• Mr. Wilson — her boss at the Elektra
• Mrs. Wilson — the wife who mistakenly attacks her

Bobo's cousin and Babydoll's on-and-off lover; he steals his mother's boyfriend's Packard to run away to Memphis. Later he keeps a steady job and proposes to Babydoll onstage out of jealousy.

Arc: He grows from a reckless runaway into a married man, though Babydoll says he still runs around and always comes home.

• Babydoll — his lover and later fiancée/wife
• Bobo — his cousin
• Annie Kay Henderson — the girl he first invited to run away
• Mr. Daniel — his uncle

A polio survivor who walks with a cane, Franklin is Vernice's suitor and later husband. He is patient, decent, and wants a real marriage, and he eventually asks Vernice to let him see who she truly is.

Arc: He wins Vernice's love, marries her, and grows from a guarded romantic partner into a husband who holds her through her confession.

• Vernice "Niecy" Davis McHenry — his beloved and wife
• Mrs. McHenry — his mother
• Richmond McHenry — his father
• Joette Cunningham — his wife's former lover

Vernice's wealthy Spelman roommate and secret lover, from a family that owns a mortuary. She is furious when Vernice marries Franklin, but later helps Vernice arrange Annie's funeral and demands that Vernice tell Franklin the truth.

Arc: She moves from hidden lover to estranged friend, then to the person who insists on truth rather than money as the price of dignity.

• Vernice "Niecy" Davis McHenry — her Spelman roommate and secret lover
• Albertina Cunningham — her mother
• Marylinda Freeman — her cousin
• Thomas Donaldson Jr. — her would-be fiancé

Franklin's mother and Vernice's mother-in-law, called Patty by Joette. She is a stickler for respectability, trains Vernice in housekeeping, and protects the McHenry name at any cost.

Arc: She welcomes Vernice into the family but repeatedly chooses protocol over compassion, insisting that scandal cannot happen in her house even after Annie's death.

• Vernice "Niecy" Davis McHenry — her daughter-in-law
• Franklin McHenry — her son
• Richmond McHenry — her husband
• Joette Cunningham — the niece of an old school friend

Annie's grandmother and Hattie Lee's mother, who raises Annie and gives her Hattie's Memphis address. She is blunt, protective, and demands control over Annie's wages.

Arc: She raises Annie, is abandoned when Annie runs away, and later tells Annie she cannot raise any more babies; her letters are dictated by Raynelle Jemison.

• Annie Kay Henderson — her granddaughter
• Hattie Lee — her daughter
• Raynelle Jemison — the woman who writes her letters

Runs The Den in Honeysuckle and gives Annie and Niecy pickles when they come asking questions. He refuses to claim Annie as his daughter, but hires her with Granny's conditions and later sends her money and a letter of introduction.

Arc: A boundary-keeping mentor figure who refuses the role of father but helps Annie move into adulthood.

• Annie Kay Henderson — her former employer and would-be father
• Hattie Lee — the woman he pitied and allowed to drink for free
• Clyde — his nephew
• Irvina Henderson — known her forty years

The midwife who delivered Vernice and many other Honeysuckle babies. She drives Vernice to Spelman and urges Vernice to cry properly, warning that 'tears in the blood' cause havoc.

Arc: She remains a communal elder and source of wisdom; her advice about grief echoes into Vernice's final chapters.

• Vernice "Niecy" Davis McHenry — the baby she caught at birth
• Raynelle Jemison — her partner
• Carmen — the woman whose sons she delivered

Vernice's former teacher and mentor who drives her to Spelman and warns her not to waste her chance. She and Ola Mae Simmons share a home as partners.

Arc: Guides Vernice toward college and later writes letters for Granny, remaining a quiet presence in Vernice's life.

• Vernice "Niecy" Davis McHenry — her former student and charge
• Ola Mae Simmons — her partner
• Irvina Henderson — the grandmother for whom she writes letters

Joette's cousin and a Movement activist who sometimes passes as white; she retrieves Vernice's lost luggage and later gives Vernice a doctor's phone number. She is in love with Desmond.

Arc: From campus activist to married-era friend, she still helps Vernice in dangerous moments and laughs with Babydoll during the raid fallout.

• Joette Cunningham — her cousin
• Vernice "Niecy" Davis McHenry — her former classmate and friend
• Harold Freeman — her father
• Desmond — the man she is in love with

The married boss of the Elektra bar who hires Babydoll and Annie. After Bobo leaves Annie, Mr. Wilson begins an affair with her and becomes the father of her pregnancy.

Arc: The affair quickly turns sour; he gives Annie money but does not protect her, and his wife's attack costs Annie and Babydoll their jobs.

• Annie Kay Henderson — his employee and affair partner
• Babydoll — his employee
• Mrs. Wilson — his wife

Hattie Lee's former landlord and friend, who uses his gift of discernment and tells Annie that Hattie Lee is dead—a lie that Isaiah later confesses. He helps revive Annie when she faints.

Arc: His false news triggers Annie's mourning; he does not appear again after Isaiah's confession.

• Hattie Lee — her former landlord and friend
• Isaiah — his housemate and fellow church member
• Annie Kay Henderson — the daughter he recognizes from a photo

Sweet's housemate who first tells Annie that Hattie Lee is dead. He later appears at Annie's door to confess that Hattie Lee is alive and gives Annie her address.

Arc: He moves from liar to penitent, believing God has stripped him of his spiritual gifts for the lie; Bobo punches him when he appears.

• Annie Kay Henderson — the woman he wronged and then confessed to
• Bobo — Annie's man, who punches him
• Sweet — the person he lied to about Hattie Lee's death
• Hattie Lee — the woman he said was dead and then said was alive

Hattie Lee's other daughter, a girl with the same name as Annie; she comes out of Hattie Lee's house carrying her brother Bobby and says her mother is asleep.

Arc: A brief messenger who makes clear that Hattie Lee is hiding inside and will not come out to see Annie.

• Hattie Lee — her mother
• Bobby — her little brother
• Annie Kay Henderson — the visiting half-sister who shares her name

Lulabelle's twin sister; she refuses to rent the four unmarried travelers a room and later tends the rose garden with Lulabelle as a tribute to their mother.

Arc: No arc; she appears at the threshold of the story and again in the memorial garden.

• Lulabelle Simms — her twin sister
• Hortense — their mother
• Annie Kay Henderson — the pregnant girl whose decision she questions

A girl raised by Lulabelle after being sold to her for five dollars; she calls Lulabelle 'Mama,' greets visitors on the porch, and insists she is not a whore. She also writes a letter on her mother's behalf in Memphis.

Arc: No arc; she remains on Lulabelle's porch and inside the house, carrying messages around Lulabelle's world.

• Lulabelle Simms — the woman she calls 'Mama'
• Annie Kay Henderson — a visitor she greets

Marylinda's father, a white man from Brooklyn who 'passed backward' by giving up whiteness for love. He lives as a colored man but occasionally slips into white spaces, and at dinner he rails against Malcolm X.

Arc: He is a living example of passing in reverse and accepts Vernice as a summer guest with some reluctance.

• Marylinda Freeman — his daughter
• Mrs. Freeman — his wife
• Franklin McHenry — an acquaintance who knows his secret
• Vernice "Niecy" Davis McHenry — a summer guest he mistakes for the McHenry girl

Marylinda's mother, who welcomes Vernice to the Freeman home and insists the family eat dinner like civilized people.

Arc: No arc; she is a hospitable background figure.

• Marylinda Freeman — her daughter
• Harold Freeman — her husband
• Vernice "Niecy" Davis McHenry — her guest

Franklin's father, a doctor-lawyer who founded McHenry & McHenry. He simmers over the laundromat raid and later viciously accuses Niecy of helping Annie kill the baby.

Arc: He exposes the vicious underside of the respectable McHenry surface.

• Mrs. McHenry — his wife
• Franklin McHenry — his son
• Vernice "Niecy" Davis McHenry — his daughter-in-law

Joette's mother, who meets Vernice and Mrs. McHenry at Rich's and announces Joette's engagement to Thomas Donaldson Jr. She later helps Vernice into Cunningham & Sons after Annie's death.

Arc: No arc; she acts as a keeper of social propriety.

• Joette Cunningham — her daughter
• Mrs. McHenry — an acquaintance
• Vernice "Niecy" Davis McHenry — her daughter's former roommate

A blues singer who performs with his band at the Elektra, invites Babydoll to sing, and flirts with her until Clyde interrupts the show.

Arc: He catalyzes Clyde's jealous onstage proposal and then disappears from the story.

• Babydoll — the woman he sings and flirts with
• Bobo — his piano player

Franklin's grandmother, born in chains, who sheltered a dying Union soldier and kept the ring he gave her. That ring becomes Franklin's engagement ring to Vernice.

Arc: A remembered ancestor whose ring symbolizes love born from decency.

• Franklin McHenry — his grandmother

Aunt Irene's man in Dayton, who sends her bus fare to visit her dying mother and later sends her belongings when she stays in Honeysuckle. He dies three years before Aunt Irene returns to Dayton.

Arc: Offstage; his death sends Aunt Irene back to Dayton to lay flowers on his grave.

• Aunt Irene — his woman in Dayton

The mechanic the group hopes to hire with barter credit; Clyde uses two of the 'sessions' meant for him. He later dies after a fight with one of the sirs.

Arc: Offstage; his repair needs and death frame the travelers' time at Lulabelle's and in Memphis.

• Clyde — the man who used his mechanic's credit

Runs the covert laundromat medical operation, uses an alias, and gives the women dirty clothes to wash so they blend in. She denies having a back room when police raid.

Arc: No arc; the police raid ends the planned procedure and sends the women fleeing.

• Niecy — the woman who called about medical assistance
• Annie Kay Henderson — the patient in her appointment slot

He performs Annie's illegal procedure and insists on recording a next of kin before he will begin, saying it is part of being a doctor.

Arc: No arc; his bureaucratic demand leads Annie to name Vernice as her chosen next of kin.

• Annie Kay Henderson — the patient whose next of kin he records
• Lulabelle Simms — the woman who scrubs him with Lava soap
• Babydoll — the woman who writes down the names

The Honeysuckle preacher with a gold-toothed smile who gives Annie and Vernice an evasive answer when they ask where Hattie Lee is, saying she is in God's hands.

Arc: No arc; he appears in an early church scene.

• Annie Kay Henderson — a girl in his congregation
• Vernice "Niecy" Davis McHenry — a girl in his congregation

Vernice's grandmother and the mother of Arletha and Aunt Irene; her name is part of the Irene naming line.

Arc: No arc; she is background to the family naming history.

• Arletha — her daughter
• Aunt Irene — her daughter
• Vernice "Niecy" Davis McHenry — her granddaughter

A stranger at the Kinder filling station whose sons were delivered by Ola Mae Simmons. She scolds Larry, tells Vernice about giving birth in Honeysuckle, and offers Vernice a ride home.

Arc: One-scene helper who models maternal sympathy and tells Vernice that losing a mother never fades.

• Larry — his aunt by marriage
• Vernice "Niecy" Davis McHenry — the girl she offers a ride to
• Ola Mae Simmons — the midwife who delivered her sons

A LeMoyne-Owen student whose father is a professor; Bobo leaves Annie for her because she is 'anticipating his arrival.'

Arc: Offstage; she is the reason Bobo abandons Annie.

• Bobo — the woman he leaves Annie for

Mr. Wilson's wife, who comes to the Elektra spitting mad and attacks Babydoll, mistakenly believing Babydoll is the woman her husband took up with.

Arc: No arc; her fight with Babydoll costs Annie and Babydoll their jobs.

• Mr. Wilson — her husband
• Babydoll — the woman she mistakenly attacks

Joette's maid, who organizes Joette's dresses and is silenced by a glare when she begins to speak about the Cunninghams.

Arc: No arc; she is a servant in Joette's dormitory life.

• Joette Cunningham — the young woman she serves

A Spelman-era student who calls himself a 'Philadelphia Negro,' argues that Jesus was a Negro, and tries to recruit Vernice to the Movement. Marylinda is in love with him.

Arc: No arc; he is a minor recruiter at Spelman.

• Marylinda Freeman — the woman in love with him
• Vernice "Niecy" Davis McHenry — the student he nicknames 'Mademoiselle Mouse'

Vernice's library boss who traps her in the stacks and pressures her for 'a little trim'; Mrs. McHenry promises to speak to him so he will stop chasing Vernice.

Arc: No arc; he represents workplace harassment in Vernice's college life.

• Vernice "Niecy" Davis McHenry — the library worker he harasses
• Mrs. McHenry — the woman who promises to stop him

Franklin's brother and Mrs. McHenry's son, a pediatrician. Vernice wants him to name an abortion doctor, but the family refuses.

Arc: No arc; his refusal is a measure of the family's fear of scandal.

• Franklin McHenry — his brother
• Mrs. McHenry — his mother

Joette's would-be fiancé; their wedding announcement is sent out and then cancelled.

Arc: No arc; he exists only through announcements and gossip.

• Joette Cunningham — her would-be husband

Marylinda's brother, who sits beside Vernice at the Freeman dinner table.

Arc: No arc; he is a minor presence in the Freeman household.

• Marylinda Freeman — his sister

Annie Kay's little brother, carried on her hip while she speaks to Annie at Hattie Lee's house; one of Hattie Lee's younger children.

Arc: No arc; he is a small child in the household.

• Annie Kay — the sister who carries him
• Hattie Lee — his mother

Annie Kay's brother and Hattie Lee's son, mentioned in the household at Hattie Lee's house.

Arc: No arc; he is only named among Hattie Lee's children.

• Annie Kay — his sister
• Hattie Lee — his mother

Lulabelle and Lurelia's mother, who died giving birth to twin boys. The rose garden at Lulabelle's is a tribute to her.

Arc: No arc; she is remembered through her daughters' memorial garden.

• Lulabelle Simms — her daughter
• Lurelia Dubose — her daughter

Vernice's French teacher at Spelman, who stares at her with lust but restrains himself to wet lips.

Arc: No arc; he appears only as an uncomfortable presence in the classroom.

• Vernice "Niecy" Davis McHenry — object of his gaze