The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

AVERY, MARGARET JO (1943– ).

A teacher and an award-winning motion-picture actor, Margaret Jo Avery was born in Mangum, Oklahoma, on April 15, 1943, to Lavernia “Laverne” Colbert Avery, wife of Lonnie B. Avery. The actor’s family has an extensive Oklahoma legacy. Laverne Colbert’s father (Miles), grandfather (Monroe), and great-grandfather (Nathan) were enrolled Choctaw Freedmen. Circa 1946 Laverne Avery married Archie Lee Haynes, a U.S. Navy veteran, and in 1949 the family moved to San Diego, California. After attending public schools in Mangum and graduating from San Diego’s Point Loma High School in 1961, Margaret Jo Avery received a bachelor’s degree in 1965 from San Francisco State University. She worked as an elementary school teacher in Oakland and Los Angeles, earned a master’s degree in psychology from Phillips Graduate University (Chatsworth, California), and then studied acting. She married Robert Gordon Hunt in 1974, and they had one child. They divorced in 1980.

Avery’s acting career has included stage, television, and motion pictures. Her first major movie role came in Stephen Spielburg’s Something Evil (1972, Sandy Dennis, Darren McGavin). She followed these with Magnum Force (1973, Clint Eastwood), Louis Armstrong: Chicago Style (1976, Ben Vereen), Scott Joplin (1977, Billy Dee Williams), The Color Purple (1983, Whoopie Goldberg, Danny Glover), Return of Superfly (1990, Nathan Purdee), and Meet the Browns (2008, Martin Lawrence, Angela Bassett). Her television work included the made-for-television movie Heat Wave (1990, Cecily Tyson, James Earl Jones). She had ongoing roles in Harry O (1973) and in BET’s Being Mary Jane (2013–19) and appeared in episodes of Kojak; Sanford and Son; Murder, She Wrote; Miami Vice; Spenser: For Hire; The Cosby Show; and Grey’s Anatomy.

Avery has won several awards for her work. In 1972 the Los Angeles Drama Critics’ Circle named her “best lead performance by an actress” for “Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?”, a stage production. In 1977 she received the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Image Award for Scott Joplin. In 1983 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated her for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as “Shug.” In 2014 she was inducted into the San Francisco State University Alumni Hall of Fame. In addition to her show business career, Avery has also been a practicing psychotherapist. A California resident, she was still acting as late as 2020.

Dianna Everett