A Piece of Jewelry That Reminds “Abbott Elementary” Actor William Stanford Davis of His Grandmother

“I don’t want to go out here looking like an old man trying to be a young man, but I do like some of the forward younger fashions,” said William Stanford Davis (Stan to his friends, Mr. Johnson to his “Abbott Elementary” fans).

The actor doesn’t shy away from red carpet accessories, like a spiked fanny pack or a large diamond brooch, which he wore at the 2024 Screen Actors Guild Awards. In an interview that’s been edited and condensed, Mr. Davis recounts the significance of the brooch.

Tell me about your brooch.

A friend of mine is a designer, and when she showed me the piece, it moved me. I even told my wife, I said, “It reminds me of a piece that I gave my grandmother when I was young.” And that’s basically how it came into my life.

When I was a kid, I would go to this particular corner not far from my house in St. Louis: Easton Avenue and Taylor. And I would stand on the corner and ask guys if they needed their shoes shined. And the thing I wanted to do was buy my grandmother something for Mother’s Day. She raised me. Her name is Josie. Josie Evans. We call her Mama Josie.

I would go in this Goodwill store and look for things to buy my grandmother. They had a case with all this costume jewelry, and you had necklaces and rings and all these things, and I saw a brooch that kind of looked like that. And that’s why this brooch here means a lot to me. It reminds me of the brooch that I got for her.

Did you get your style from Mama Josie?

I did get my style from her. She would always say, “Always leave the house looking your best.” I just kind of picked that up. She always stressed the importance of quality: Don’t buy anything cheap, it won’t last. She hated sneakers. Back then you could get a pair of Chucks for nine bucks. Real Chuck Taylor Converse, and she thought that was a lot of money to spend on what she called “easy walkers.”

But I got my sense of style from her to always look my best. She would coordinate things, she would tell me what colors go together, and she would let me go a little crazy sometimes. She took me to see Broadway shows when they would come to St. Louis. She took me to the opera, so I would have to be dressed. I couldn’t go out of the house, she would say, looking “slovenly.” So that kind of has stuck with me my whole life.

Do you think about who you want to pass this brooch down to someday?

I don’t have kids, but I know who I will consider passing things, including the brooch, to when I think it’s their time, when they deserve something that’s nice. But, like me, when she gave me things, I had to earn them. So if I wanted a suit or a pair of shoes, she said: “I’ll pay for half of it. You have to pay for the other half.” And so it was about earning something. It made me appreciate it more. It made me take care of it.