Barbara Randolph

Barbara Randolph (May 5, 1942July 15, 2002), also known as Barbara Ann Sanders, was an American soul singer and actress who recorded for Motown Records in the 1960s. Biography She was born in Detroit and was adopted by the actress Lillian Randolph, who appeared in It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and many other movies. Her show business career beganunder the name Barbara Ann Sanders, having taken the name of Lillian's second husband – when she was 8 years old, playing the part of Tanya in the 1953 feature film Bright Road. In 1957, both her mother and she joined Steve Gibson's vocal group, The Red Caps, as singers. For a number of years, a common but mistaken belief held that her mother and Steve were siblings, making him Randolph's uncle (although she may have affectionately referred to him as such). James "Jay" Price, a member of the Red Caps from 1952 to 1958, explained that Steve and Lillian only jokingly called each other "sister" and "brother", but they were not related. The story apparently started with a December 31, 1953, article in JET that referred to them as siblings, in Major Robinson's gossip column—which often carried the most outrageous (and unverified) claims from press agents. Further, the 1910 United States Census shows Lillian's mother was already 50, far too old to have given birth to Steve Gibson on October 12, 1914. Randolph appeared with her mother in Gibson's nightclub acts, using her mother's maiden (and stage) name of Randolph in 1957, continuing to appear with the Red Caps on various occasions in the 1960s.