Bonnie Jean "B.J." Poteet
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Bonnie Jean "B.J." Poteet is a character in the final season of the television series, Designing Women. She was played by Judith Ivey.
[edit] Hair full of air
B.J. is a rich, eccentric and very down-to-earth widow who came at a time that she was needed most. Sugarbaker's was near bankruptcy, especially since obnoxious and selfish Allison Sugarbaker just pulled her money out of the firm to buy a more lucrative Victoria's Secret franchise. She was a former court reporter in Houston, Texas, when she met James Poteet, the owner of Poteet Industries, a large conglomerate. She met him when he was a litigant in her courtroom. They had only been married a very short time, since he died of a heart attack at his own wedding reception. He was leading a conga line to the song, "Proud Mary" when he died.
This left B.J., who was a recovering alcoholic, a very wealthy widow, and with nothing more than time on her hands, she felt she wanted to help when she could. So, she hired Sugarbakers to help decorate her new home, then she won the company through a hand of Poker. Being generous, however, she offered to lose, so Julia Sugarbaker could get her company back. Because of this, Julia got along a little better with B.J., than even her own family, like Allison, or her own sister, Suzanne.
One day, B.J., after seeing her friends depressed, had them all take a trip to Las Vegas, on the spur of the moment. During this trip, their male partner, Anthony Bouvier met and impulsively married his wife, Etienne Toussant.
One of B.J.'s most trusted people, aside from her new friends and business partners is her long-time butler, Steadman.
With the Poteet Industries money behind them, Sugarbakers was back in the black, for a while. Until an arrogant rival of her late husband's who was surnamed, Kearney, tried to take over Poteet Industries, and also, Sugarbakers. Unbelievably, he intended on giving Sugarbakers to his young trophy wife, named Kiki, (but was called Kinky, Kooky; and other unflattering names by the Sugarbaker staff) and allowing her to rename it "Kikibakers".
When it was discovered that he had committed money laundering, however, he was duly arrested; his hostile takeover was stopped cold; and Sugarbakers and Poteet Industries were saved.
B.J. has a tendency to speak her mind, much like Julia, but she does so to push her buttons. She is also very generous, offering to buy things for everyone. Since she has all this cash and not anyone to be with, what with James having died and all; she feels that she could use her fortune to help friends who came to mean a lot to her, and she gets great joy out of being with such an interesting group of people.
