Another "What's Happening!!" Star Dead

Shirley Hemphill was 52; second cast member to die in as many months

Actress Shirley Hemphill, best known as the wise-cracking waitress with whom she shared a first name on the 1970s sitcom, What's Happening!!, was found dead at her West Covina, California, home Friday, authorities say. She was 52.

Natural causes are suspected. Hemphill's body was found face down in her home by her gardener, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department says. It appeared she had been dead for some time.

Hemphill is the second What's Happening!! player to die in as many months. Mabel King, who played Mama on the 1976-79 ABC sitcom, died November 9 at age 66 from complications of diabetes.

While King played the show's loving mother to a teen son and a precocious daughter, Hemphill played the gang's sharp-tongued provocatuer. At Rob's, Hemphill, a veteran comic, served up hamburgers and, yes, insults.

Hemphill proved so popular she was awarded her own sitcom in 1980. Unfortunately, One in a Million, casting Hemphill as a Los Angeles cab driver who strikes it rich, was short-lived, lasting just six months.

The actress went on to revive her role as Shirley Wilson on the updated version of What's Happening!!, What's Happening Now! (1985-88).