‘What’s Happening’ Actor Shares Emotional Words on Danielle Spencer’s Death.

Ernest Lee Thomas, who played Raj on What’s Happening!!, shared a heartfelt message days after the passing of his longtime TV sister Danielle Spencer. Spencer, who won hearts as smart and sassy Dee, died on August 11 at 60.

In an Instagram post on August 13, Thomas included an older picture of the two of them at a film festival. Spencer, elegantly dressed in a flowing gown and on crutches, smiled as she leaned on Thomas’s arm. A single, luminous smile cut through the haze of her pain.

See more

“No more suffering for my baby sister DR. DANIELLE SPENCER,” the 76-year-old actor wrote gently. “At nine, she named me big brother and I’ve proudly worn the title ever since.”

Thomas recounted a hopeful plan made earlier that summer. He and a mutual friend had found a sunny spot in L.A. for Spencer, organized the spare bedroom, and lined up a retired Christian couple—Kirk and Lois Roberts—who had volunteered to shower her with the kind of practical love that doesn’t make the headlines.

Find Related Stories! Kelly Clarkson’s Ex-Husband Brandon Blackstock Dies at 48 After Brave Cancer Battle.

“She didn’t want to leave until the bedsores healed,” he explained. The plan was a bridge to brighter days. The news of Spencer’s death, he wrote, shattered him to the core. “I heard from Haywood Nelson late last night that Danielle’s mother says she has gone,” he typed.

“Instantly my stomach locked, every limb felt like it had sunk into concrete, and the tears started racing. The only comfort is that she left us with Mama and Brother holding her. I praise GOD for giving us forty-nine years that felt like heaven, for laughter that outnumbered the stars, for every moment we sang to our Savior CHRIST JESUS.

Thankful, but the grief keeps spilling. 2 Corinthians 5:8 ‘ABSENT FROM THE BODY PRESENT WITH THE LORD.’” Between 1976 and 1979, Thomas inhabited the lovable Raj Thomas on What’s Happening!! while Spencer, still a child, was the wisecracking Dee.

The show ran for three seasons, and Spencer, with her trademark “Ooh, I’m tellin’ Mama!” keeping things spicy, returned for the What’s Happening Now!! syndication from 1985 to 1987, always bringing that little sister sass back to the living room.

Danielle Spencer Suffered From Medical Problems for Much of Her Life.

At just twelve, Spencer’s childhood was altered forever when a car struck her on the way to a filming. The accident left her with a spine out of line and a nervous system that has never stopped complaining, and her legs could only do half the walking they once promised her. .

The operating room became a second home, but her laughter never canceled the pain. Spencer graduated with her veterinary degree from Tuskegee University in Alabama in 1993, a fact posted on her official biography page.

Sad news came on Instagram from her friend and former co-star Haywood Nelson, who played Dwayne on What’s Happening!!. Nelson, 65, wrote that cancer took Spencer from us.

“We have lost a daughter, sister, family member, ‘What’s Happening’ cast member, veterinarian, animal rights champion, healer, and cancer heroine. Our Shero,” he wrote. “Danielle is loved. She will be missed in this form and forever embraced.” Nelson and Thomas are now the only main cast members from What’s Happening!! still with us.