Laverne Roberts

Laverne Roberts
Aloma Wright as Laverne.
First appearance	"My First Day"
Last appearance	"My Long Goodbye"
Created by	Bill Lawrence
Portrayed by	Aloma Wright
In-universe information
Gender	Female
Occupation	Nurse
Family	Lance (nephew), unnamed brother, possible son
Spouse	Lester Roberts (husband)

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

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".) 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". 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. She nicknames her breasts "Paris" and "Nicky" but denies that this was after the Hilton sisters ("Other way around").

Death

After suffering injuries due to a car crash on her way to work in "My No Good Reason", Laverne falls into a coma and becomes unresponsive. In the next episode, "My Long Goodbye" she dies from her injuries.

It is revealed in the episode that she and Dr. Kelso had sex before she was married, which is surprising, given Laverne's disdain for premarital sex, although the veracity of this is murky at best as it was a hallucination of Laverne who told Carla.

Nurse Shirley

Nurse Shirley
Aloma Wright's new character, Nurse Shirley.
First appearance	"My Hard Labor"
Created by	Bill Lawrence
Portrayed by	Aloma Wright
In-universe information
Gender	Female
Occupation	Nurse

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 will play 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 full comprehend it as she was wearing a surgical mask. In the credits for this episode, it is revealed that her name is indeed Nurse Shirley, and was given the nickname Laverneken by J.D in My Identity Crisis.