Noel J. Mickelson: John Amos’s First Wife, Children, Marriage & Life
Noel J. Mickelson was an American artist, accomplished horsewoman and creative person best known as the first wife of actor John Amos. Long before Amos became famous for Good Times, Roots and Coming to America, he and Noel met as college students and began a relationship that developed during a period when interracial marriage was still prohibited in parts of the United States.
The couple married in 1965 and had two children, Shannon Amos and Kelly Christopher “K.C.” Amos. Their marriage lasted about a decade before they divorced in 1975.
Although Noel is frequently introduced simply as John Amos’s former wife, her children remembered her as much more. She had a strong creative side, loved horses and the outdoors, and encouraged artistic expression within her family.
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Noel died in December 2016. One of the most touching details about her later life came from her daughter Shannon, who honored her mother’s wish to see the world by taking Noel’s ashes on an international journey after her death.
Table of Contents
Noel J. Mickelson at a Glance
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Noel J. Mickelson |
| Also Known As | Noel Jean Mickelson, Noni |
| Known For | John Amos’s first wife |
| Former Husband | John Amos |
| Marriage Year | 1965 |
| Divorce Year | 1975 |
| Children | Shannon Amos and K.C. Amos |
| Education | Attended Colorado State University |
| Known Interests/Work | Art, horses, equestrian activities and creative work |
| Death | December 2016 |
| Net Worth | Not publicly confirmed |
Who Was Noel J. Mickelson?
Noel J. Mickelson became publicly associated with Hollywood through her marriage to John Amos, but she did not build her own life around celebrity.
She and Amos knew each other before his television fame. Their relationship began while they were young college students, years before millions of viewers came to recognize him as James Evans Sr. on Good Times.
Accounts of Noel’s life describe her as highly creative and deeply connected to nature.
She has variously been described as an:
- Artist
- Equestrian
- Horsewoman
- Creative craftsperson
- Environmentalist
Was Noel Mickelson’s Full Name Noel Jean Mickelson?
Noel is commonly identified as Noel J. Mickelson, while some biographical profiles give her fuller name as Noel Jean Mickelson.
Her family also affectionately referred to her as “Noni.”
That nickname appears in memories shared by her children, particularly in family photographs and posts remembering their mother after her death.
Noel J. Mickelson’s Early Life
Compared with John Amos, relatively little of Noel Mickelson’s early biography became part of the public record.
Some profiles report that she was born in Minnesota and place her birth in the early 1940s. One widely repeated date is August 22, 1943, although detailed primary documentation of her birth is limited.
Her family background has also been described as having European and Ashkenazi Jewish roots.
What is much better documented is the next stage of her life: her time at Colorado State University and her relationship with John Amos.
Noel Mickelson’s Education at Colorado State University
Noel attended Colorado State University, where she met the man who would become her husband.
John Amos was also a student there.
At the time, Amos was involved in football and studied sociology before eventually pursuing the entertainment career for which he became famous.
College therefore became the beginning of one of the most important relationships in both Noel and John’s early adult lives.
How Did Noel Mickelson Meet John Amos?
Noel Mickelson and John Amos reportedly met while studying at Colorado State University.
Their relationship began well before John became an established actor.
The two came from different racial and cultural backgrounds, something that made their relationship particularly significant given the social and legal climate of the United States during the 1960s.
Their relationship developed during the Civil Rights era, when interracial couples still faced not only social hostility but also legal restrictions in parts of the country.
Despite those circumstances, Noel and John chose to marry.
Noel J. Mickelson and John Amos’s Marriage
Noel Mickelson married John Amos in 1965.
Their marriage is an important part of their story because it took place two years before the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Loving v. Virginia struck down state laws prohibiting interracial marriage.
At the time Noel and John married, interracial marriage was still illegal in a number of U.S. states.
Their relationship therefore existed against a very different legal and social background from the one interracial couples experience under modern U.S. law.
Was Noel Mickelson and John Amos’s Interracial Marriage Illegal?
This point needs some context.
John Amos and Noel Mickelson married during an era when interracial marriage was prohibited in many states, rather than at a time when interracial marriages were universally illegal across the United States.
By 1965, numerous states had already removed such restrictions, but roughly 16 states still maintained anti-miscegenation laws.
In 1967, the Supreme Court’s Loving v. Virginia decision invalidated remaining state bans on interracial marriage nationwide.
Their marriage therefore began during the final years of a discriminatory legal system that directly targeted couples like them.
The Challenges Noel and John Faced as an Interracial Couple
The couple’s children later discussed some of the racism their family experienced.
Their daughter Shannon recalled a disturbing incident involving an armed racist confronting the family and threatening her father.
Experiences like this demonstrated that legal changes alone did not immediately eliminate racial hostility.
For Noel and John, raising a biracial family during the 1960s and 1970s meant navigating social attitudes that could sometimes become openly hostile.
That history is an important part of Noel’s story and the environment in which Shannon and K.C. grew up.
Did Noel Mickelson and John Amos Have Children?
Yes.
Noel Mickelson and John Amos had two children:
- Shannon Amos
- Kelly Christopher “K.C.” Amos
Both eventually entered creative fields, although neither followed exactly the same career path as their father.
Noel’s children have also been important sources of personal memories about her because she herself maintained a much less public life.
Who Is Shannon Amos?
Shannon Amos is Noel Mickelson and John Amos’s daughter.
She built a career largely behind the scenes in entertainment and media.
Her professional work has included writing and producing, with connections to major media companies such as BET and MTV.
Shannon has also publicly reflected on her parents and her upbringing.
Her memories provide some of the clearest personal information available about Noel because Shannon has spoken about her mother’s values, creativity and later-life wishes.
Who Is K.C. Amos?
Noel and John’s son is Kelly Christopher Amos, commonly known as K.C. Amos.
He developed a career in the entertainment industry as a:
- Director
- Producer
- Video editor
- Filmmaker
K.C. has been involved with projects including The Watermelon Heist, Tamales and Gumbo and other film work.
Like Shannon, he has occasionally shared memories and photographs of his mother.
Noel Mickelson as a Mother
Noel’s children remembered her as a strong influence on their creativity.
Shannon credited her mother with helping both children learn how to express themselves creatively.
K.C. has also shared memories of Noel’s household routines, including the expectation that the children would be home for dinner at around 6 p.m.
These seemingly ordinary details provide a more personal picture of Noel.
Despite having a husband who later became a nationally recognized actor, her children remembered a family life shaped by discipline, creativity and close relationships.
Noel J. Mickelson’s Career and Creative Life
Noel Mickelson did not have the kind of public career that can easily be reconstructed through movie credits, company records or interviews.
However, multiple descriptions of her consistently point to a creative personality.
She is frequently described as an artist, and her children have reinforced the importance of creativity in their upbringing.
She also worked with her hands and has been described in different accounts as being involved with design, carpentry or architectural interests.
What is much clearer is that creativity was central to her identity.
Was Noel Mickelson an Artist?
Yes, Noel is consistently described as an artist.
Art appears to have been more than a casual hobby.
Her creative outlook also influenced Shannon and K.C., both of whom eventually pursued careers involving storytelling, production and visual media.
Noel’s artistic interests are one reason it is incomplete to describe her only as “John Amos’s wife.”
She had interests and talents independent of her marriage.
Noel Mickelson as an Equestrian
Another major part of Noel’s life was her connection to horses.
She has repeatedly been described as an equestrian and accomplished horsewoman.
Her son K.C. later shared memories of his mother’s riding abilities and her serious involvement with horses.
This appears to have been one of Noel’s strongest lifelong passions.
Noel Mickelson’s Love of Horses
Noel did not simply have a passing interest in horseback riding.
Family recollections portray her as someone deeply comfortable around horses and committed to riding.
She participated in endurance-style equestrian activities and developed a reputation within her family as a skilled rider.
Her love of horses also fits naturally with the strong connection to nature and the outdoors that appears throughout descriptions of her life.
Was Noel Mickelson an Architect or Carpenter?
Different online profiles use different terms when describing Noel’s work.
Some call her an architect, while others describe her as a carpenter, artist or craftsperson.
There is not enough detailed documentation of professional licenses, employers or major architectural projects to confidently present “architect” as her sole occupation.
The broader picture is more reliable: Noel was a creative woman who worked artistically and practically with her hands and maintained interests extending beyond conventional fine art.
Noel Mickelson’s Family Background
Noel came from a background very different from John Amos’s.
Published accounts have described her as white and have connected her ancestry to Ashkenazi Jewish and Eastern European roots, with some profiles additionally referring to Danish ancestry.
John Amos, meanwhile, was a Black American whose family ancestry included African roots.
Their different backgrounds became an important element of how later accounts discussed their marriage, particularly because of the racial climate surrounding interracial couples during that era.
Noel Mickelson and John Amos’s Divorce
After approximately ten years of marriage, Noel Mickelson and John Amos divorced in 1975.
By this time, Amos’s acting career was becoming increasingly prominent.
The exact private reasons for their divorce have not been extensively documented.
Rather than becoming the subject of a prolonged public dispute, their marriage and separation remained comparatively private.
Their connection continued, however, through their two children.
Why Did Noel Mickelson and John Amos Divorce?
There is no well-established public explanation identifying one specific reason for the divorce.
Without direct confirmation from Noel or John, claims assigning the breakup to a particular event should be treated cautiously.
The reliably documented information is simply that they married in 1965, became parents to two children and separated in 1975.
John Amos After His Marriage to Noel Mickelson
John Amos went on to become one of the most recognizable actors of his generation.
He became particularly famous for playing James Evans Sr. on Good Times.
His acting credits also included major productions such as:
- Roots
- Coming to America
- The West Wing
- Die Hard 2
- The Beastmaster
- Coming 2 America
His performance in Roots became one of the defining roles of his career and earned significant critical recognition.
After his divorce from Noel, Amos later married actress Lillian Lehman, although that marriage was also relatively brief.
Noel Mickelson’s Life After the Divorce
Noel largely disappeared from the public entertainment narrative following her divorce from John Amos.
She did not use her connection to her former husband to develop a celebrity career.
Instead, her later life remained private and centered on her own interests and family.
Information about her romantic relationships, employment and residence during those years is limited.
Her children, however, remained closely connected to her.
When Did Noel J. Mickelson Die?
Noel J. Mickelson died in December 2016.
She was reportedly surrounded by family during her final days.
Her death revealed one especially touching detail about something she still wished she had done.
Noel regretted not having traveled more extensively and seen more of the world.
Her daughter Shannon decided to help fulfill that wish after her death.
Noel Mickelson’s Final Wish
Near the end of her life, Noel reportedly expressed regret about not having traveled around the world.
That wish deeply affected Shannon.
Rather than allowing it to end with Noel’s death, Shannon decided to take her mother’s ashes traveling.
Beginning in January 2017, she embarked on a journey intended to allow Noel, symbolically, to experience the places she had wanted to see.
The tribute became one of the most personal and memorable stories connected to Noel’s later life.
Shannon Amos’s Tribute to Her Mother
Shannon’s decision to travel with Noel’s ashes demonstrated the close connection between mother and daughter.
It also provides an insight into how Noel was remembered by her family.
The public generally knew her because of John Amos.
Her children, however, remembered:
- Her creativity
- Her love of horses
- Her parenting
- Her connection to nature
- Her family routines
- Her unrealized desire to travel
Those memories give Noel’s biography depth beyond her famous marriage.
What Was Noel J. Mickelson’s Net Worth?
Noel J. Mickelson’s personal net worth was never publicly confirmed.
Some biography websites publish estimates, but there is no dependable financial documentation establishing an exact amount.
Her finances would have depended on factors including her creative work, property, personal assets and other private financial arrangements that were never publicly disclosed.
John Amos’s earnings should also not be treated as Noel’s independent net worth, particularly because they divorced in 1975.
Was Noel Mickelson Famous?
Noel was not a conventional celebrity.
She did not become widely known through movies, music, television or another public entertainment career.
Her fame primarily developed because of three things:
- She was John Amos’s first wife.
- She was the mother of Shannon and K.C. Amos.
- Her interracial marriage to John occurred during an important period in American civil-rights history.
Interest in Noel has continued because people researching John Amos’s family naturally encounter her name.
Noel J. Mickelson’s Legacy
Noel Mickelson’s most visible legacy can be found through her children.
Both Shannon and K.C. pursued creative work, reflecting something they credited in part to their mother’s influence.
Her marriage also remains historically notable.
Noel and John chose to build an interracial marriage and family during an era when some American states still legally prohibited such relationships.
Yet Noel’s legacy should not be reduced entirely to that marriage.
She was remembered within her family as an artist, horsewoman, creative influence and mother whose interests extended well beyond Hollywood.
Quick Facts About Noel J. Mickelson
- Noel J. Mickelson was John Amos’s first wife.
- She is also referred to as Noel Jean Mickelson.
- Her family called her Noni.
- She met John Amos while they were college students.
- Both attended Colorado State University.
- Noel and John married in 1965.
- Their interracial marriage began while such marriages were still prohibited in some U.S. states.
- The Supreme Court struck down remaining interracial-marriage bans in 1967.
- Noel and John had two children: Shannon Amos and K.C. Amos.
- They divorced in 1975.
- Noel was an artist and accomplished horsewoman.
- Published profiles differ on whether her creative work should additionally be described as architecture or carpentry.
- Noel died in December 2016.
- Shannon later traveled with her mother’s ashes to honor Noel’s wish to see the world.
- Noel’s personal net worth was never reliably confirmed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Noel J. Mickelson?
Noel J. Mickelson was an artist and equestrian best known as the first wife of actor John Amos and the mother of his two children, Shannon and K.C. Amos.
Was Noel Mickelson John Amos’s first wife?
Yes. Noel was John Amos’s first wife. They married in 1965 and divorced in 1975.
Did Noel Mickelson and John Amos have children?
Yes. They had two children, daughter Shannon Amos and son Kelly Christopher “K.C.” Amos.
What did Noel J. Mickelson do for a living?
Noel was widely described as an artist and equestrian. Some accounts additionally describe her as an architect, carpenter or environmentalist, although her exact professional career is not extensively documented.
When did Noel J. Mickelson die?
Noel died in December 2016 surrounded by members of her family.
What was Noel Mickelson’s net worth?
Her personal net worth was never reliably confirmed publicly.
Why is Noel Mickelson’s marriage to John Amos historically notable?
They married in 1965, when interracial marriage remained illegal in several U.S. states. Remaining state bans were struck down nationwide by the Supreme Court in 1967.
Final Thoughts
Noel J. Mickelson occupies an important but often overlooked place in John Amos’s family story.
She met Amos before Hollywood fame, married him in 1965, and built an interracial family at a time when couples like them still faced both legal discrimination and open racism.
Together they became parents to Shannon Amos and K.C. Amos, both of whom eventually entered creative fields.
But Noel’s life was not defined only by her marriage.
She was remembered as a creative woman, artist and passionate horsewoman who encouraged self-expression in her children and maintained strong interests in nature and equestrian life.
After her death in December 2016, Shannon’s decision to take her mother’s ashes around the world offered perhaps the clearest demonstration of their bond.
