[13][14] As a child, she began singing on a local gospel radio show and was also a member of the church choir.

[15][16] At age 19, Hardy changed her surname to Carter and left Birmingham, Alabama, moving to New York City with the Renaissance Ensemble, where she sang in coffee shops, nightclubs and bathhouses before landing her first Broadway role in 1971.

[19] Carter became a star for her role in the musical Ain't Misbehavin, for which she won a Tony Award in 1978.

[21] In 1978, Carter was cast as Effie White in the Broadway musical Dreamgirls but departed the production during development to take a television role on Ryan's Hope.

[23] Carter's additional Broadway credits include Dude and the 20th-anniversary production of Annie, in which she played Miss Hannigan.

[24][25] In 1979, Carter had a part in the Miloš Forman-directed musical adaptation of Hair and her voice is heard on the film's soundtrack.

Carter became best known to audiences for her lead role in the NBC television series Gimme a Break!, in which she played a housekeeper for a widowed police chief (Dolph Sweet) and his three daughters.

In August 1987 after the cancellation of Gimme a Break!, Carter returned to the nightclub circuit with a five-month national tour with comedian Joan Rivers.

[28] In 1989, Carter played the assistant to a banquet-hall owner in an unsuccessful pilot for NBC titled Morton's by the Bay, which aired as a one-time special that May.

She was upset when commercials promoting the show used white actress Marcia Lewis as Miss Hannigan.

Her final onscreen appearance was in the comedy film Back by Midnight, released in 2005, two years after her death.

Using blood tests, X-rays and a cursory physical examination, the Los Angeles County coroner's office ruled that Carter's death was the likely result of "probable arteriosclerotic heart disease, with diabetes a contributing condition.

[40][41][42] Carter attempted suicide in the early 1980s, and around 1985 she entered a drug-detoxification facility to break a longstanding cocaine addiction.

In her first attempt, she allowed a young pregnant woman to move into her home with the plan that she would adopt the child, but the mother decided to keep the baby.