LaWanna Rozella Potts-Payne was born in San Mateo, California on September 26th, 1949 to Nathaniel
Potts Sr. (D) and Ramona Jewel Potts (D). The family resided in Sacramento where she graduated from
Hiram Johnson in 1966 and later moved to San Francisco in 1970 with her two daughters MeKal and
TeAreiy. Daemian was born shortly after. She began her career helping and serving others as a nurses'
aide and after a few years became a housewife and full-time mother culminating with her fourth child,
James in 1978.
In 1982, she played an instrumental role advocating for women's rights and challenged the San
Francisco Housing Authority to eliminate large dumpsters and other nuisances from the area along with
Allegra Taylor and former Mayor Diane Feinstein. During this initiative, the three took a limousine ride-
a-long and witnessed the living conditions firsthand and implemented sweeping changes and regulation
due Lawanna's role. She was vested early in the black pride movement and donned her larger-than-life
Angela Davis inspired afro and by 1983 she returned to Sacramento to be closer to her mother, father
and rest of her family.
By 1985, she began a new journey and followed her calling working in social services, specifically with
abuse reactive adolescence. She was employed with the Sacramento Children's Home for almost three
decades. In 2012 and 2013 she was awarded the "Grandma's Hands" award by the California Legislature
Assembly for dedicating her life to improving and uplifting the lives of youth and families through
education, community, activism, health, and social services.
Without question, her most monumental contribution was to her family as a matriarch to all. She
enjoyed warming other hearts with her soulful cooking and her famous Sunday family dinner gatherings
with her children and her "pride and joy" all her grandchildren. Words are incapable of describing her
vital significance in raising her two granddaughters, Sequoia and Cheyenne. She spent valuable time and
loved all her siblings, she had an inseparable bond with her little sister Princel and her two daughters,
LaTasha and Danielle.
Some of her favorite sayings included "Get SMUD out of my pocket", "don't let dark catch you", "find a
stump that fits your rump", "if you're going to be out all night hooting with the owls, then you better
get up early with roosters", and one that her grandchildren have heard "stop running in my house
before I tie you to the back of the car and drive over three speed bumps". Even with all her Lawanna-
isms, she ended every conversation with either "I love you" or "talk to you later" and began every
conversation with "Hi Sweetie" or "Hi Sweet Pea".