Penny Gordon Woods

Infobox character
name = Millicent "Penny" Gordon Woods
born = 1967
color = Blue
residence = Chicago, Illionis
nationality = African-American
relatives = Lynella Gordon (1966–1977)
age = 13 (in 1979)
first = The Evans Get Involved, part 1
last = The End of the Rainbow
portrayer = Janet Jackson
alias = Millicent Gordon
title = Babysitter/Daughter
gender = Female
family = Lynnella Gordon (biological mother)
Willona Woods (adopted mother)
nickname = Penny

Millicent "Penny" Gordon Woods was a supporting character in the television series "Good Times". She was played by Grammy-winning R&B singer, Janet Jackson in her first acting role.

Abused and neglected

Penny, whose real name is Millicent, grew up in a single parent household, and the experience wasn't pleasant. She was abused by her mother, Lynnella Gordon (played by Chip Fields), and had no defense against it. Mrs. Gordon had a tendency to be somewhat selfish and extremely conniving.

She caught the city bus from school and met up with J. J. Evans whom she developed an instant crush on. She also got to know J.J.'s sister, Thelma and their younger brother, Michael. They were the loving family that she had always dreamed of.

The person, however, who developed a "real" maternal instinct for her was J.J.'s mother, Florida's best friend, next-door neighbor, and now "their" surrogate mother, Willona Woods.

Penny had been burned with an iron, along with other bruises and burns on her back and arms, because of her mother's violent temper. Like most abused children, Penny would go so far as to defend her mother, even lying for her, for fear that the abuse would worsen if she didn't defend her.

One day, while preparing for a school carnival, Willona and the Evanses found Penny sobbing outside of their apartment door. She felt her arm, and Penny shrieked. It seemed to be broken.

Deeply worried, the family took her to see a doctor at a nearby emergency room, but the doctor was not sympathetic. Nonetheless, a determined Willona was convinced that something wasn't right. So she called Chicago's Department of Children and Family Services and enlisted the aid of a social worker; a white woman name of Mrs. Carpenter, who was more than helpful, and to Willona's and the Evanses delight, was able to assimilate to the ghetto environment.

Later that same day, Mrs. Gordon stormed into the Evanses' apartment, accused Willona of kidnapping, threatened her with the police, and then ran off and took Penny with her. Soon after, Penny broke away from her, and hid in the coat closet in the Evanses' home.

Once again, Mrs. Gordon barged into the apartment and had a violent argument with both Willona and Thelma over Penny's welfare. In a fury, Willona outright declared her to be unfit. "You don't own the rights or the patents on scuffling!" Willona told Mrs. Gordon, sternly.

After Willona's denunciation of her, Mrs. Gordon completely lost all control, and she started shaking Penny mercilessly while screaming at her at the top of her lungs, to the horror of all present, including the normally unflappable J.J., who doesn't usually get unnerved by many things, but even "he" was stunned. Shocked by her own behavior, she then ran out of the apartment, and left the building, basically abandoning her, even going so far as to say Penny deserved better than her.

After Mrs. Gordon ran out, Willona and the Evanses did everything they could to help the emotionally shattered youngster; J.J. even going so far as to do a hilarious imitation of a fly flying into a cloud of Black Flag fly killer. This put a smile on Penny's face, not to mention everyone else's face as well. Later on, during her first night at Willona's, J.J. also told Penny a hilarious variation on the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears starring him, Michael and Thelma and the little girl's name was "Afrolocks".

Willona went through the proper channels to get Penny adopted and to give her a home and a sense of love, something that she had sorely lacked. Although it was almost derailed by the antics of the building's scheming superintendent, Nathan Bookman, Willona succeeded (though really, Bookman wanted to help the adoption: He posed as a father while the social worker {played by the late Alice Ghostley} was there, so Williona would get Penny. However, when Michael barged in and revealed the truth, it gave the impression that Willona and Bookman were living together out of wedlock, jeprodizing the adoption). The Adoption would almost be derailed a second time when Penny would be caught shop-lifting; she was trying to get a nice Christmas gift for Williona.

She was absolutely thrilled. Here was someone whom she could truly love. Because of Penny, Willona, once the show's spitfire, became more level-headed and stable, even going so far as to slow down her constant dating; devoting all her energy to giving her new adopted daughter the love her own mother never gave her.

When Florida returned to Chicago for daughter Thelma's wedding, she met Penny and became quite fond of the young girl. She became the surrogate little sister of the Evans family. Penny calls her "Aunt Florida".

Although things for the most part between Penny and her mother were over, she made one final attempt to get her back, trying to set Willona up as an unfit mother. To that end, Mrs. Gordon hired a man to come on to Willona and pose as her boyfriend. She began weakening Penny by sending her gifts, including a brass bed, in hopes to fool the child. The plan began to unravel at a party they threw in Willona's apartment. The police and the smug Mrs. Gordon showed up at the door, as the man told the officers he did not know Willona, which was a brazen lie. She also revealed to Willona and Penny that she had met and fallen in love with a very wealthy man while she had been gone, which was how she had financed the entire scheme to discredit Willona as an unfit mother, not to mention all the gifts she tried to bribe Penny with.

A final confrontation with Willona ensued, in which the truly conniving Mrs. Gordon spoke a lot of angry words, including that any judge would believe a battery of high-priced and high powered lawyers, over Willona (Mrs. Gordon conveniently forgetting that she herself had lived in the same building), and threatened to take her to court to get Penny back. It seemed that Mrs. Gordon had won, and felt smug that she had finally put her enemy in her place.

What she didn't reckon with, however, was Penny accidentally tape recording (using a tape recorder she received as a gift) the entire conversation, which gave Willona more than enough evidence to use against Mrs. Gordon if need be, because during the argument, Mrs. Gordon revealed that she had done this dreadful scheme as retaliation against Willona adopting Penny.

After Penny gave a tearful declaration saying that no matter what anyone, especially her selfish birth mother, said, she would always consider Willona as her mother, given that "she" (Willona) and not Mrs. Gordon, had loved her and cared for her, and made her feel wanted, Unlike Mrs. Gordon, who had only saw her daughter as someone she could scream at, and usually took out her frustration on, in the forms of beating, burning and other forms of abuse. After Penny's declaration, Mrs. Gordon tried to advance on her with that same threatening look she always used when she was about to beat Penny viciously, but Willona, protective of Penny, put a stop to it.

Mrs. Gordon, devastated that her vindictive scheme came undone and that Penny didn't ever want to see her and had finally healed from her abuse, left the apartment shortly after, never to be heard from again. After that, Penny and Willona's bond as mother and daughter was stronger than ever. Penny declared through her tears, "I love you, Mama", and went into Willona's arms and hugged her.

When the show ended, Penny and Willona moved into a large luxury apartment building in a fancy neighborhood of Chicago. It was discovered, at the end of the last show, that Willona and Florida would still be neighbors in their new neighborhood. Florida would move in and live with Thelma, her new husband, professional football player Keith Anderson and their child.