Danielle Spencer, who played the precocious youngster Dee Thomas on the 1970s ABC sitcom What’s Happening!!, has died. She was 60. Spencer died Monday in a hospital in Richmond, Virginia, her What’s Happening!! co-star Haywood Nelson told The Hollywood Reporter .

Danielle Spencer’s mom, Cheryl Pelt, revealed that her daughter was hospitalized nearly two weeks before her death. Pelt told TMZ on Wednesday, August 13, that the What’s Happening!! star was admitted to the hospital on August 1 “after a urinary tract infection turned septic.

Former child star Danielle Spencer, who brought sass as little sis Dee in the 1970s sitcom 'What's Happening!!,' died Monday after battling cancer. She was 60.