Naomi Harper

Naomi Harper (née Oates) is a fictional character from the sitcom Mama's Family. She was played by actress-director Dorothy Lyman.

Character overview

Naomi was the second wife of Vinton Harper and the bane of Thelma Harper's existence. Thelma thinks that Naomi is a floozy; but Vint adores her and calls her "Skeeter". At first, Naomi was Thelma's neighbor, always complaining about the sap from Thelma's tree dripping on her car, but later she becomes family. Naomi is a very amorous, touchy-feely woman, who's often seen openly showing her love and affection towards Vinton by rubbing and feeling all over him. She almost always either wears the color yellow and/or off-the-shoulder dresses and shirts.

She met Vinton, an old schoolmate, after he moved in with his mother, and the two hit it off. They even shared a night together, which truly infuriated Thelma. When they announced their marriage plans, Thelma wanted the paramedics called, because she was going to kill Vinton.

In fact, her wedding ceremony was almost ruined by the over-the-top antics of her hateful sister in-law, Eunice Harper Higgins. Eunice begged both Vinton and Naomi to let her sing. Naomi reluctantly agreed, basically to keep Eunice quiet. However, the straw broke for Eunice when Naomi showed her a ring that her mother had given Vinton. It turned out to be a sapphire ring that had belonged to her father, and she had coveted for some time. Naomi tied the ring around her neck (it was the something old, something borrowed and something blue, her dress was the something new).

This led to Eunice going off on every single member of her family, and particularly her mother, leading Ed, Eunice's long-suffering husband, to carry her out of the house. During this argument, Naomi wasn't spared Eunice's tongue-lashing and neither was Vinton. She called her younger brother, "Tinker Bell" and referred to Naomi as a "recycled bride". This set the stage for animosity between Eunice and Naomi. To Eunice, Naomi is a Bleach Blond Bimbo, and Naomi counters with that she buys her clothes from a dime-store dummy.

At first, Naomi, with Vint and her new family, was set to move to Arizona to run a trailer park, but her so-called "partner" ran off with the money she had made selling her house.

Naomi worked as a cashier at Food Circus, a local grocery store in Raytown, and continued to do so, even after her marriage. Later on, she was promoted to Assistant Manager. She worked under three managers, Mr. Frank Palmer (who hired Thelma Harper as head of customer relations), Mr. Carruthers, and Mr. Archie Woods, who sexually harassed Naomi.

She had been married two previous times, most notably to Leonard Oates (played by Jerry Reed), but despite that, Vint is her soul-mate and the love of her life. She and Vint remain a solid couple, even though their across the street neighbor, Iola Boylen, makes no secret that she wants Vint.

Although she established a bond between her and her two stepchildren, (from Vint's first marriage) Vinton "Buzz" Harper, Jr. and Sonja Harper; she had her own child by Vint, Tiffany Thelma Harper, named after her grandmother. After years of living in the basement of the Harper home, they purchased a trailer and lived in the backyard, out of the house, but never out of Thelma's shadow.

The character of Naomi underwent a change after the series went to first run syndication. Naomi became less assertive and more dumb. During the run on NBC Naomi was not shown to be a pushover and quite often stood up to Mama. Indeed at one point she sued Mama. This side of Naomi was dropped when the series entered syndication.

There is also a continuity error with how many prior times Naomi has been married. Most say Vinton was her third marriage but several instances (such as in the episode regarding the chili cook-off, Naomi names four prior ex-husbands so that would make Vinton her fifth. Naomi says she married Tommy Lee when she was 17, then names Rick, Leonard and George as her other husbands. It was Leonard (played by Jerry Reed) who had the last name of Oates

Naomi boasts about her cooking, but it's really canned food with a few added ingredients. Her "Famous International Stew" is canned stew, canned peas, canned Mexican corn, canned sauerkraut and SpaghettiOs. Another time is when Mama, Iola and Naomi competed in a chili cookoff, Naomi's ingredients consisted of canned chili, beer nuts, beef jerky, and Fritos. Despite having limited cooking skills, Naomi briefly worked as a caterer with disastrous results.