| Ben |
Able | One of Calla's new acquaintances. |
| Queen |
Anne | Former Queen of Great Britain. |
| Hoagy |
Carmichael | American musician. |
| Mr. |
Chan | Owned a noodle restaurant. |
| Desmond |
Combs | Sally Gunner's acquaintance. |
| Esther |
Cotton | Sally Gunner's friend. |
| Uncle |
D | Calla's uncle. |
| Calla |
Destry | Black young woman desperate to escape the violence of her town. |
| Vic |
Dunn | Best known for bright and bold block print. |
| Erastus |
Fellows | Calla's new acquaintance. |
| Bob |
Franklin | Uncle D's friend. |
| Charley |
Goodwin | Bud's acquaintance. |
| Mary Ellen |
Gunner | Sally Gunner's mother. |
| Sally Louise |
Gunner | White woman with a recent head injury who communicates with the angels. |
| Mr. Homer |
Hale | Calla's new acquaintance. |
| Mrs. Leona |
Hale | Homer Hale's mother. |
| Ottie Lee |
Henshaw | White woman in rural Indiana who joins her husband and her boss on a road trip to Marvel. |
| Hortensia |
James | Calla's neighbor. |
| Marjorie |
Keys | The old woman with Jasper. |
| Bud |
Lancer | Insurance man; Ottie's boss. |
| Robert Edward |
Lee | Confederate general. |
| Abraham |
Lincoln | 16th U.S. President. |
| Pops |
Nelson | One who joins Ottie on a journey to witness a lynching in Marvel. |
| Candy |
Perkins | Ottie's acquaintance. |
| Theodore |
Roosevelt | 26th U.S. President. |
| Mr. |
Spitzer | Mrs. Spitzer's husband. |
| Mrs. |
Spitzer | Ottie's acquaintance. |
| Cadle |
Tabernacle | Massive historic evangelical church building in Indianapolis. |
| Aunt |
V | Calla's aunt. |
| Calliostro |
| Leander's mule. |
| Colonel |
| Esther Cotton's dog. |
| Dale |
| Ottie's husband. |
| Gary |
| Ottie's acquaintance. |
| Goody |
| Owner of a beauty parlor. |
| Jasper |
| Bud's new acquaintance. |
| Jasper |
| Old man Calla had met. |
| Leander |
| Calla's ambitious white lover. |
| Lord |
| The governor. |
| Merle |
| Aunt V's cousin. |
| Methuselah |
| Biblical patriarch and a figure in Judaism. |
| Robert |
| One of Calla's new acquaintances. |
| Roscoe |
| Calla's acquaintance. |
| Tom |
| Sally Gunner's father. |
