Barbara Randolph

Who was Barbara Randolph?

Barbara Randolph, also known as Barbara Ann Sanders, was an African American singer and actress who recorded for Motown Records in the 1960s.

She was born in Detroit, Michigan, and was adopted by the actress Lillian Randolph, who appeared in It's a Wonderful Life and many other movies. Barbara's show business career began – under the name Barbara Ann Sanders, having taken the name of Lillian's second husband - when she was eight years old, playing the part of Tanya in Bright Road with Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge. In 1957, both she and her mother Lillian briefly joined Steve Gibson's, vocal group, The Red Caps, as singers. However, regardless of common belief, Lillian Randolph and Steve Gibson were not sister and brother and he is, therefore, not Barbara's uncle. James "Jay" Price, a member of the Red Caps from 1952-8, says that, while Steve and Lillian jokingly called each other "sister" and "brother," they weren't related at all. The story apparently started with a 31 December 1953 article in Jet Magazine that referred to Steve as Lillian's brother. It appeared in Major Robinson's gossip column, which carried the most outrageous claims from press agents. Most telling is that, in the 1910 United States Census, Lillian's mother was about 50, far too old to have given birth to Steve Gibson on October 12, 1914. She also appeared in her mother's and Gibson's nightclub acts, using her mother's maiden name of Randolph in 1957.