A family spokesperson said Spencer died Monday after battling cancer for several years. As Dee, she was a deadpan, wisecracking sister on What's Happening!! Spencer later became a veterinarian.

On TV's "What's Happening!!" Danielle Spencer turned herself into a household name at just 11 years old, playing sassy and quick-witted Dee Thomas.

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!! so-star Haywood Nelson told The Hollywood Reporter .