Joilet F. Harris-Lawton, award-winning actress, versatile singer, and humanitarian, has died at 64

Joilet F. Harris-Lawton, 64, of Philadelphia, Barrymore Award-winning actress, versatile singer, and inspirational humanitarian, died Friday, Oct. 14, of complications from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at Fox Chase Cancer Center.

Called a “theater stalwart” by friends and colleagues, Mrs. Harris-Lawton sang beautiful songs, played memorable characters, and graced stages and movie sets around the world for nearly her entire life. She started singing at church in North Philadelphia when she was 3, got her first real role at 23, quit her day job when she was 34, and went on to play before packed houses in the United States and Europe over the next 30 years.

She shined in dozens of roles at the Walnut Street, Arden, and Freedom Theatres, and other playhouses in Philadelphia, Delaware, and around the country. She sang with Patti LaBelle, toured Europe with the Harlem Gospel Choir, and brought police detective Caroline Massey to life in six episodes of the TV show The Wire from 2004 to 2006.

She played a courtroom guard in the 2000 movie Animal Factory and a harassed mother in 1995′s 12 Monkeys. She won her 2007 Barrymore Award as the leading actress in the musical Caroline, or Change, earned parts in TV commercials and industrial films, and performed a one-woman show based on family stories about slavery.

“To hear her sing was to know her,” Amy Murphy and Terry Nolen of the Arden Theatre Company said in a tribute. “Joilet filled you with her voice — seemingly effortlessly rising, soaring before opening up and astonishing you with her power and passion.”

In a remembrance, Zak Berkman, producing artistic director at People’s Light theater in Malvern, said her voice “could make a building rumble as it lifted all the spirits inside it. … Joilet made each space she entered more honest and more joyful.”

In a 1990 review of From the Mississippi Delta, Janet Anderson said in the Daily News: “Joilet Harris gives beautiful voice and soul to this character.” In 2014, Chuck Darrow said in the Daily News that she “delivered a marvelous opening-night turn,” and John Timpane said in 2019 in The Inquirer: “Harris is wonderful throughout.”

She also performed at weddings, funerals, banquets, fund-raisers, reunions, and birthdays. She mentored countless actors and singers, served on the advisory council at Danse4Nia repertory ensemble, and, as an expert seamstress, worked with wardrobe departments on several productions.

She promoted the theater at her church and wherever she went, telling The Inquirer in 2007: “If you want to get people of color to patronize your theater, you have to approach them. You have to send people out to give them a taste of what they’re going to experience.”

Her website is titled “Philadelphia’s Treasure.”

Away from the footlights and backstage buzz, Mrs. Harris-Lawton routinely distributed meals, toiletries, clothing, and other items to people on the street, even stopping sometimes as she drove to a performance. She was active at Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church on Cheltenham Avenue and traveled to Africa as a missionary half a dozen times.

At the bottom of her first audition form for Arden in 1989, she wrote: “I am fierce!”

Born July 28, 1958, in Philadelphia, Joilet Frances Harris grew up in Germantown with her grandparents. Devout throughout her life, she rose to church soloist, codirector of the choir, and Sunday school teacher.

Shyness was never a problem. “I was the class clown and a big ham,” she told the Daily News in 1995. “I’ve never taken a singing or acting lesson. It just comes natural.”

She graduated as class vice president from Germantown High School in 1976, married Kenny Thorpe, and had son Cory. After a divorce, she married Jeffrey Robinson. They divorced later.

She attended a few theater classes at Temple University but discovered she learned better on the job. At first, she supplemented her show-business income by working at restaurants, in retail, and for an insurance company and a hospital.

She met William Lawton in 2021, and “he did all the things us girls dream of,” Harris said in an online interview. They both grew up in Germantown, but he doesn’t remember her from the neighborhood. She told him they crossed paths a few times, but he ignored her.

They married last December and planned to live in Florida. A vacation to Italy was in the works. “I was in awe of our relationship, how open we could be,” her husband said. “She could touch your heart, and her voice could make you cry.”

Mrs. Harris-Lawton enjoyed cooking, and she made practically every curtain, pillow, and furniture cover in her home. She liked to travel and was a do-it-yourselfer with a basement full of tools and extension cords.

“She was one of my favorite supporting characters,” a friend said on Facebook. “I remember wishing she had more lines.” Another friend said: “All of our lives are the better because she was in it.”

Her son said: “I can’t imagine a better mother.”

In addition to her husband, son, and former husbands, Mrs. Harris-Lawton is survived by a grandson, four brothers, one sister, and other relatives. Two sisters died earlier.

A celebration of her life is to be held at 11 a.m. Monday, Nov. 28, at the Walnut Street Theatre, 825 Walnut St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19107.

Donations in her name may be made to Danse4Nia, P.O. Box 14235, Philadelphia, Pa. 19138.