ISABEL SANFORD

If there's anything in life you consider worthwhile achieving - go for it. I was told many times to forget show business - I had nothing going for me. But I pursued it, anyway. Voila!

I was very comfortable having a steady job on a hit show, and who knew if 'The Jeffersons' would catch on?

I wasn't young, I wasn't pretty, and I was a black woman looking for success in a business where those attributes were certainly not in demand in the 1960s.

I was the only child born to Josephine Perry that survived. Mama had six other children before me, and all had passed very quickly and very young, all succumbing to a combination of illness and disease and the lack of strength to fight off both.

I was very comfortable having a steady job on a hit show, and who knew if 'The Jeffersons' would catch on?

I was the only child born to Josephine Perry that survived. Mama had six other children before me, and all had passed very quickly and very young, all succumbing to a combination of illness and disease and the lack of strength to fight off both.

If there's anything in life you consider worthwhile achieving - go for it. I was told many times to forget show business - I had nothing going for me. But I pursued it, anyway. Voila!

I wasn't young, I wasn't pretty, and I was a black woman looking for success in a business where those attributes were certainly not in demand in the 1960s.