[1] Jovelina was born in Rio de Janeiro, at the Botafogo neighbourhood and raised in Belford Roxo.
She worked as a housemaid until her forties and was a member of the samba school Império Serrano.
Success came late in her life and she did not fulfill her dream of "earning a lot of money and giving her children everything she didn't have".
Jovelina died on November 2, 1998, at age 54, from a heart attack in her home in Pechincha.
[3] Her name was given to the Arena Carioca Jovelina Pérola Negra cultural center, in the Pavuna neighbourhood of Rio.