Oscar-nominated actor Jamie Foxx still sheds a tear when talking about the devastating news of losing his sister, Deondra Dixon.
This year is special as she would’ve turned 40 years old. On her birthday last year, Foxx shared this heartwarming note.
“Miss u … I wish you were here I know you’re in heaven, cracking everybody up with your jokes,” the “They Cloned Tyrone” actor uploaded to Instagram, along with a photograph of the two siblings smiling and affectionately resting their heads on one another.
The 55-year-old also shared a clip to his Instagram Stories, filmed from inside a Rolls-Royce as it stopped before a large-scale blue-and-pink decorative display set up around the entrance fountain of an undisclosed mansion.
The display said, “Fly High Butterfly DeOndra,” in giant letters and was flanked by cardboard cutouts of gifts, balloons, hearts and stars, plus smaller signs that read “family” and “we miss you.”
In 2020, the actor shared a black and white photo of himself with his sister, announcing that she had passed away.
“My heart is shattered into a million pieces… my beautiful loving sister Deondra has transitioned…,” Foxx wrote. “I say transitioned because she will always be alive… anyone who knew my sis… knew that she was a bright light…”
Deondra was born with Down’s Syndrome, the genetic disorder typically associated with physical growth delays, characteristic facial features, and mild to moderate intellectual disability.
“She speaks her mind and knows that there’s nothing she can’t do,” shared Jamie in a 2017 interview. “She has such a special quality, and she can light up a room.
I don’t know where she gets it. It’s amazing.”
Deondra had just celebrated her 36th birthday in September and was looking forward to more fun with family.
“I can’t tell you how many times we have had parties at the house where she has got on the dance floor and stolen the show… ,” he posted, before joking, “Even gave her boyfriend @chrisbrownofficial a run for his money…”
“When I’m doing the music video for Blame It On The Alcohol, my sister says, ‘Big Bro, you gonna let me get down in the video, right?
I want to dance in the video’ So we’re shooting and it’s getting late, so she says again, ‘Big bro, don’t forget about me,’” Jamie remembers.
“So we’re there and everybody’s there, Quincy Jones, Samuel L. Jackson, etc. Long story short, she killed the video.”
“Quincy sees the video and says ‘I want to connect you to the Global Down Syndrome Foundation.’ He does and my sister becomes their official ambassador. She goes everywhere, she’s been to Congress. She’s the star. She’s amazing.”
The Global Down’s Syndrome foundation posted their own tribute to DeOndra on their social media and website:
With the heaviest of hearts and full of sorrow, we are beyond sad to share the news that our beloved Global Ambassador DeOndra Dixon has passed.
She is no doubt a true angel looking down on us, just as she was always an angel on earth.
The Global Down Syndrome Foundation’s highest honor, the Quincy Jones Exceptional Advocacy Award, was inspired by DeOndra and she was its first recipient. Quincy Jones himself introduced us to DeOndra as one of the most articulate, irrepressible, magnetic people he had ever met.
DeOndra was brought into this world in a loving family who treated her like any other family member. They gave her the gifts of complete acceptance, confidence, and knowledge.
They empowered her to graduate with a regular diploma from high school and to take life by storm, which, if you knew DeOndra, she absolutely did.
Her parents, Annette and George Dixon, brother Jamie Foxx, sister Deidra Dixon, nieces Anelise and Corinne, dear friend Kim, and large extended family are beyond consolable, and we ask that you help us respect their privacy during this difficult time.
For Global, we have lost our talented, intelligent, feisty, beautiful, kind, loving, caring, pure and giving heart, DeOndra Dixon.
Our Down syndrome community has lost a beacon of hope, a true leader, and role model whose aim was to always help others. She was a bright light in this world of ours.
DeOndra was our anchor. Her excitement for our Be Beautiful Be Yourself Fashion Show each year was palpable, and she often posted about her “secret moves” that she was practicing (and she did keep them secret right up until her stage call).
Over the years our fashion show became a reunion for Global’s “extended Down syndrome family” where DeOndra and her family, Annette & George Dixon, Quincy Jones, John C. McGinley, Amanda Booth, Beverly Johnson, Kyra Phillips & John Roberts, Ronnie & Shamari DeVoe, Matt Dillon, The Salah Foundation, Peter Kudla, Jules Haimovitz, Tomago Collins, Jay Mills, the Gold/Rest/Karsh/Perry, Vollbracht/Winfield, Capuano, Rotella, Sikora, Levin, Fonfara-LaRose, and Snodgrass families, our families, our tribes would come together over a weekend and celebrate life and people with Down syndrome.
Our extended family loves DeOndra deeply and unreservedly for who she is.
Global and DeOndra’s family cannot imagine our fashion show without her, and so through our heartbreak and tears, we will find the words to honor and celebrate her at our upcoming event.
Everyone at the Global Down Syndrome Foundation is in complete shock and full of grief.
Please join us in honoring her and share your fondest memories of our beautiful and brilliant DeOndra Dixon. DeOndra is already sorely missed, but she will never be forgotten.
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