American comedian and actress Moms Mabley was BOTD in 1894. Born Loretta Mary Aiken in Brevard, North Carolina, she had a turbulent childhood involving sexual abuse, having two children by the time she was 13. She ran away at 14, joining a travelling minstrel show in Cleveland and taking the stage name Jackie Mabley. She became a successful entertainer on the Black vaudeville circuit, becoming one of the first openly queer comedians, typically appearing in men’s clothes. In her later career, she adopted the less threatening “Moms” persona, a toothless bedraggled woman in a floppy hat, allowing her to address controversial themes like racism and homosexuality. She became more widely known to white audiences in the 1960s, performing at Carnegie Hall in New York, and appearing on television shows The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Pearl Bailey Show. In 1974, she starred in the comedy film Amazing Grace, playing a widow who brings down a corrupt politician. Mabley had four further children, though never married and lived openly as a lesbian. She died in 1975, aged 81. Her reputation was resuscitated by the actress Whoopi Goldberg, who staged a one-woman show, Moms in 1983. More recently, she was played by lesbian comedian Wanda Sykes in TV series The Marvellous Mrs Maisel.