Daddy Clidell
The conservative, unassuming husband Vivian marries shortly after World War II begins. A successful but poorly educated property owner from Slaten, Texas, he is the first real father in Maya's life and teaches her to play "poker, blackjack, tonk and high, low, Jick, Jack and the Game."
Reverend Howard Thomas
Texarkana resident who presides as church elder over the district including Stamps. Hated by Maya and Bailey for being ugly, fat, and pompous, he freeloads meals from Annie. During one Sunday morning worship, his teeth fall out while he duels with Sister Monroe during her violent response to his evangelism.
Sister Monroe
An energetic, shouting churchgoer who makes up for infrequent attendance by jostling the minister and urging him to "Preach it!"
Miz Ruth, Miz Helen, Miz Eloise
Young lower-class white girls who mock Annie Henderson by imitating her posture. The tallest one does a handstand in the dust, revealing her bare backside as an extra dollop of disrespect.
Mrs. Bertha Flowers
A cool, thin, black-skinned Stamps matron who, with her voile dresses, flowered hats, and white gloves, embodies a refined, ladylike grace that is the antithesis of local squalor and misery. As baker of tea cookies, reader of Dickens, and representative of what Momma calls "settled people," Mrs. Flowers is an appropriate antidote to Maya's poignant self-loathing.
Viola Cullinan
Maya's white acquisitive and tradition-bound employer and the barren wife of Mr. Cullinan, who fathered the Coleman girls, two attractive daughters of a Stamps black woman. Perceiving herself as Virginia-born elite, Mrs. Cullinan precipitates an early burst of rebellion in Maya by renaming her Mary, thereby denying her personhood. Shrieking for her mother's forgiveness, Mrs. Cullinan offers comic relief by wallowing among the fragments of her ruined dinnerware.
