Overview

• Haywood Nelson announced on Instagram that Spencer passed away on August 11 at a Richmond, Virginia, hospital.
• Her decades-long health crises included a 1977 Pacific Coast Highway crash that killed her stepfather and left her in a coma, a 2014 breast cancer diagnosis with double mastectomy, and emergency brain surgery in 2018.
• After reprising Dee Thomas on What’s Happening Now!!, Spencer earned her doctorate in veterinary medicine in 1993, practiced for more than two decades, and hosted a pet-care segment for Richmond’s WTVR-TV.
• A GoFundMe page launched by loved ones to offset her medical expenses raised over $10,000 while she underwent treatment for her cancer and complications.
• Although no official cause of death has been released, tributes from co-stars and her 2014 induction into the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture underscore her enduring cultural and professional legacy.