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Viola "Mammy" Watkins was a character who appears in the Season 6 episode of The Golden Girls titled "Wham, Bam, Thank You, Mammy". The part of Viola is played in the episode by veteran stage/film actress and activist Ruby Dee.

About Viola and "Big Daddy"[]

Viola had worked for the Hollingsworth family as a housemaid and nanny when Blanche was a child. Blanche had loved Viola, whom she affectionately referred to as "Mammy," and had viewed her as a second mother. One day, when Blanche was 10 years old, Viola left the Hollingsworth home with no explanation. Blanche felt abandoned and was devastated at the loss of her "Mammy."

Upon hearing about the death of her former employer, Big Daddy, Viola makes a surprise visit to Blanche's home in Miami. Blanche is surprised to see her former nanny, who reveals that she has traveled all the way from her home in Atlanta to retreive a music box, which she claims that Big Daddy wanted her to have. Blanche is shocked that Viola would ask for something after her perceived abandonment, so she lashes out at Viola for leaving the Hollingsworth estate without explanation.

Viola soon makes a shocking revelation about Blanche's father; that she had once been in a relationship with Curtis "Big Daddy" Hollingsworth. She claims they were deeply in love during a time in which interracial marriage in the Jim Crow South was illegal. Such affairs were not only taboo and frowned upon in society, but in many cases they were dangerous. Blanche expresses disbelief that her father and Viola, her Black nanny, had been involved in an affair. She states that Big Daddy was "a Republican" and thus wouldn't do that sort of thing. Viola produces love letters the two had exchanged, which proves the nature of their relationship.

Blanche is bitter and reluctant to believe Viola's story. Viola claims that in another time, the two would have gotten married, but at that time in the Deep South there were strict laws which prohibited interracial marriage. Blanche confronts her Mammy for abandoning her, and Viola explains that when Blanche's mother found out about the affair, she was forced to quit her job and flee the estate. She also reveals that she stayed in contact with Curtis through their continued love letters, so she has kept up on Blanche's biggest milestones. She was even able to secretly attend Blanche's wedding to her husband George by blending with the caterers. Blanche is forced to accept the truth about the affair, and she and Viola make up.

At the end of the episode, Blanche gives Viola a music box she found in Big Daddy's posessions, but Viola says it's not the same one she had gifted to him. The two wonder where this music box came from, and it's implied that Big Daddy may have had other extramarital affairs. Viola is not seen nor mentioned again after this.

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