4400 block of Enright Avenue (1), 2900 Bell Avenue (2)

Born John Elroy Sanford in 1922, Redd Foxx spent his formative years in St. Louis, growing up in the 4400 block of Enright Avenue and later on the 2900 block of Bell Avenue. Raised by his mother and grandmother after his father left the family, Foxx grew up in a working-class Black neighborhood in North St. Louis, where community bonds were strong and laughter was often a way of coping with daily struggles.

He attended Dumas Elementary School and briefly Sumner High School, though he left home as a teenager and never completed his education. While living in St. Louis, Foxx was known for his quick wit and comedic timing—even before taking the stage, he was cracking jokes on street corners and in local pool halls. The city’s vibrant African American culture, and the challenges of segregation and poverty, had a lasting influence on his comedic voice: unfiltered, honest, and rooted in real life.

Like many Black performers of his era, Foxx left St. Louis in search of better opportunities, eventually landing in Chicago and then Harlem, where he honed his stand-up career on the “Chitlin’ Circuit.” But his early life in St. Louis shaped both his worldview and his comedic material—his fictional TV character Fred Sanford was even named after his father and inspired by the people he’d known growing up.

In 1973, after the realignment of Spring Avenue to make way for the Cochran Veterans Hospital, a small remaining section of the street near his old neighborhood was renamed Redd Foxx Lane in honor of his achievements. The renaming recognized not only his television fame, particularly through his groundbreaking show “Sanford and Son,” but also his roots in the local community.

Redd Foxx broke new ground for African Americans in entertainment, becoming one of the first Black performers to headline a national network sitcom. Yet his humor—raw, streetwise, and deeply human—remained forever connected to his St. Louis upbringing.