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Victoria Rowell Writes About the Amazing Women who Raised Her

written by Ann Jandafor Venus Rising Magazine

Leo 08 Issue

Photo by: Lesley BohmAs a ward of the state in Maine, Victoria Rowell was raised in foster care for 18 years. At the age of eight, she received the Ford Foundation scholarship to the Cambridge School of Ballet. After dancing professionally with various companies, she later became a two-time Emmy Award-nominated actress and received 11 NAACP Image Awards. In 1990, she founded the Rowell Foster Children's Positive Plan, which enriches foster children through artistic and athletic expression. Now Victoria Rowell pays tribute to the many women in her life in her new, best-selling book, “The Women Who Raised Me.”

In her lifetime, Victoria met in person with her birth mother only three times. A descendant of bona-fide Yankee blue blood, Victoria’s white mother, Dorothy Rowell, was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia and institutionalized after having six children with various men. Because Victoria’s father was black, the Rowell family disowned her and she was left to become a ward of the state.

The social service agencies in Maine initially placed Victoria in the care of a white family who wanted to adopt her. However, Victoria was taken away from them at the age of two because at the time, the agency felt it was more important that she be raised in an African American family than to stay in her original placement. Once placed in one of the only African American families in the area, Victoria’s birth mother continued to pull strings behind the scenes to get her children back, which prevented Victoria from ever being adopted.

In “The Women Who Raised Me” Victoria writes about all the mothers and female mentors in her life who she feels helped her transition out of foster care and into adulthood. “I was never meant to be raised by one mother, but by many,” she states. From Agatha Armstead, Victoria’s longest-term foster mother who noticed and encouraged her creativity to LaTanya Richardson Jackson who symbolically adopted her as an adult, Victoria writes about the kindness and compassion of the women who appeared in her life.

…what I had yet to find was that family connection, that true belonging that I sought above all else. LaTanya, without being told, understood that, and in the ensuing years would frequently invite me and my children to be part of her family celebrations and holiday gatherings. At so many junctures, her generosity was medicinal.

Though Victoria has had great achievements in her life, she still carries the burden of loneliness and anxiety. In her book, she sheds light on the struggles of foster children who can never fully claim any family as their own.

I was experiencing what goes on for so many foster and adopted children, particularly as we enter our teen years and young adulthood. With emancipation looming in the distance, it was a time of reflection and uncertainty, searching and scrambling for any shred of affiliation.

Noticeably absent from Victoria’s book and her life is the presence of men. Victoria’s marriage to her daughter’s father was short-lived and her five-year, on-and-off relationship with Wynton Marsalis ended with a son but no commitment to Victoria. Both stories are only briefly touched on.

Victoria says she wrote her book to shed light on the world pandemic of children and orphans who need mentoring and parents. She hopes that her story will salute and inspire the type of support and mentoring she so desperately needed – and still needs – in her life to survive.

In addition to her foundation and her work as national spokesperson for the Annie E. Casey Foundation/Casey Family Services, Victoria is also currently working on a number of other books, all aimed at carrying on the work of the women who raised her. 

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