Faith Evans
Evans in 2011, Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com
Birth Name: Faith Renée Evans
Place of Birth: Lakeland, Florida, U.S.
Date of Birth: June 10, 1973
Ethnicity:
*European (father)
*African-American (mother)
Faith Evans is an American R&B singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress.
Her father is white and her mother is African-American. Her father left the family before Faith was born. In her book autobiography, Keep the Faith: A Memoir, 2008, Faith talks about her father, Richard Swain, who was white; she states, “I’ve heard people mumble something about him being Italian but I don’t know for sure.”
Her mother, Helene Evans, is a professional singer.
Faith was married to rapper The Notorious B.I.G., until his death. She has a son, actor C. J. Wallace (Christopher Jordan Wallace), with The Notorious B.I.G.; two children with her former husband, record company executive Todd Russaw; and a daughter with music producer Kiyamma Griffin.
Faith’s maternal grandfather possibly was Donald Harding Evans (the son of William Henry Evans and Catherine Mulligan). Donald was born in South Carolina.
Faith’s maternal grandmother was named Helen Arnold.
I’m pretty sure her grandmother Helen Arnold (who Faith mentions in her book as having died when Faith was very young) is the same woman of that name who divorced Donald H. Evans in 1956, Pasco co. FL. They would be the parents of Faith’s mother Helene and Helene’s twin, Hope. Donald married Helen in 1954 in New Brunswick NJ. I found an obituary on Ancestry.com that’s a little scrambled but appears to be for Donald Harding Evans, died 1965.