Laverne Roberts

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Laverne Roberts, played by Aloma Wright, is a fictional character in the NBC sitcom Scrubs.

Character profile

Laverne Roberts is a nurse at Sacred Heart Hospital who spends her days at the hospital watching soap operas and keeping up with intra-office gossip. (At one point, she says that office drama is better than her "stories." In "My T.C.W.," as another interpersonal drama unfolds, she remarks, "Mmmm. Good show today.") How long she has worked at Sacred Heart is unclear. She states that she had been there for 23 years in the Season 2 ("His Story") and again in the Season 3 ("My Clean Break"), but states that she had worked there for 24 years in Season 6 ("My Long Goodbye"). Laverne is a devout Christian, often commenting about other characters having to "answer to Jesus", believing that the Iraq War is "the Lord's work" and possessing strong views against abortion and premarital sex. In "My No Good Reason", it is revealed that much of her religious devotion was developed as a way to cope with the horrors of watching people die around the hospital every day. She is a member of her church choir, who perform at the hospital on behalf of Dr. Cox (singing the song "Payback Is a Bitch"). She is also seen in "My Scrubs" stealing scrubs for her church choir to wear.

Throughout the run of the show, Nurse Roberts is one of the few characters who could intimidate the others, including Dr. Cox, The Janitor, Dr. Kelso, and Carla Espinosa, with whom she is especially close.

Laverne's catchphrase in the show is the stereotypical "Mmm-hm", going so far that when JD uses it, Laverne gives him a dirty look and he says "What? You don't own that."

Family

Although her husband, Lester, and their son are mentioned many times, they have, like Dr. Kelso's wife Enid and son Harrison, remained two of the show's unseen characters. Mr. Roberts makes his first - and, so far, only - on-screen appearance in "My Long Goodbye". Her son can also be seen in that episode. It has also been mentioned that she has a nephew named Lance who is currently fighting in Iraq. Laverne says in the episode "My Quarantine" that she has a brother who sends her a "face cake" every year for her birthday, that is, a cake with a photo of her face on it. Her uncle also makes an appearance in "My Words of Wisdom". She nicknames her breasts "Paris" and "Nicky" but denies that this was after the Hilton sisters but the "other way around".

Death

Laverne has a car accident while on her way to work in "My No Good Reason", in which she suffers serious injuries, and needs several surgeries before she is stabilized. Despite being physically stable, Laverne remained in a non-responsive coma on life-support, and the others believed she wouldn't wake up.

In the next episode, "My Long Goodbye", it is revealed from CAT scans that Laverne suffered brain death due to her injuries. As a result, her family agrees to take her off life-support and, less than a day later, she died, but not before she received goodbyes from all her friends.

It is revealed in this episode that she and Dr. Kelso had an intimate relationship before she was married.

Nurse Shirley

After the show was renewed for a seventh season, Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence promised Aloma Wright another job on the show because killing off Laverne was written under the impression that it was the final year of the show. Wright plays a new character that is similar to Laverne, but only J.D. can see the similarities. Initial reports that she would play Shirley, Laverne's twin sister who is supposed to be the alcoholic, non-religious "anti-Laverne", turned out to be untrue.

The new character has been seen briefly in "My Hard Labor" while Kim was giving birth. J.D seemed to recognize her but didn't fully comprehend it as she was wearing a surgical mask. The credits for this episode reveal that her name is indeed Nurse Shirley. J.D. gives her the nickname Laverneagain, which she hates.

Nurse Shirley, since joining the staff of Sacred Heart, at the beginning of season seven, has apparently developed a close friendship with the Janitor.

Notes

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Last updated on Wednesday March 12, 2008 at 17:37:01 PDT (GMT -0700)
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