Narcissa Wingfield Jenifer Lewis Narciss (known as Narcissa in the film), the maid at the Ponder house, takes to chauffeuring Uncle Daniel and Bonnie Dee back and forth from town in Grandpa's old Studebaker. She's witness to both Bonnie Dee's spending habits and her untimely demise. Actress Jenifer Lewis has had major roles in a wide variety of films, including Beaches, Sister Act, Poetic Justice, Renaissance Man, The Preacher's Wife, and Castaway. On Broadway, she has starred in Dream Girls and Eubie. On television, she won a leading role in the miniseries The Temptations, and was a series regular on In Living Color, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and Murphy Brown. She was also once one of Bette Midler's back-up singers the "Harlettes." In Welty's words: Then bang up against the hitching post at the curb pulls in that Studebaker. It honks, and the motor huffs and puffs, and the whole car's shaking all over like it does if you stop it too quick after running it too long. It's been going all day, too. I shade my eyes and who do I see but old Narciss at the steering wheel. She's the cook out at the place. She's looking at me, very mournful and meaning and important. She always does look like that, but I never in my life knew she knew how to drive. The Ponder Heart, chapter 2