Betty “Big Momma” Harp
Sha’carri Richardson was raised by her grandmother Betty, who she refers to as “Big Momma.” She credits her as the person “making me the person I am.”
Betty is very proud of her granddaughter but tries to keep it realistic when she’s home. “We try not to go out in public when she’s here,” Betty told Vogue. “If Sha’Carri’s home, that’s private time. Nobody looking at her. Just playing card games, fooling around with her cousins. Just loving her to death.”
Her grandmother helped her become the woman that she was today from her own experience. “I’m a strong woman, I’ve overcome obstacles in my life, she said. “So I knew what I was talking about when, from time to time, things got hard and she’d want to quit—and I’d say, ‘Don’t start nothing and don’t finish it. You start, you finish,’ ” Whatever happens, you keep going, you hear?”
When she’s not in Texas, Sha’carri misses her grandmother’s cooking—her specialty is chicken and smothered potatoes, collard greens with fastback, and Texas toast with homemade sausage and eggs.
