By Bianca Sierra
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Alzenia Lynn Hamilton (April 25, 1930 – June 19, 2025) was an American actress. She was best known for her recurring roles as Donna Harris, Fred Sanford‘s girlfriend and later fiancée on the sitcom Sanford and Son (1972–1977) and Verdie Grant Foster on The Waltons (1973–1981). She also portrayed cousin Georgia Anderson in Roots: The Next Generation.
Hamilton was born Alzenia Lynn Hamilton in Yazoo City, Mississippi, to Nancy and Louis Hamilton and moved to Chicago Heights, Illinois, when she was twelve years old. She attended Bloom High School. She studied acting at Goodman Theatre.
After an initial appearance in the seventh episode of the series as a landlady, Hamilton starred as Fred Sanford‘s girlfriend and on again/off again fiancée Donna Harris on the television sitcom Sanford and Son. Donna was a nurse and sometimes took care of Fred. Donna was considered to be Hamilton’s most popular role. When the show returned in 1980 under a reworked title Sanford, Hamilton was not asked to return, and her character was written out of the series.
Hamilton was married to poet and playwright Frank Jenkins for 49 years, from November 1964 until his death in August 2014.
Hamilton died at her home in Chicago on June 19, 2025, at the age of 95 of natural causes.
