Youree Dell Harris, better known as “Miss Cleo” the pitchwoman for the Psychic Readers Network, died Tuesday of cancer, according to an attorney for her family.
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“We’re told she was recently hospitalized, but was discharged last week to a hospice center”, TMZ reports.
The famed fortune teller, whose real name was Youree Harris, hailed from Jamaica and became a household name with her “CALL ME NOW!” commercials.
Rest in peace, Miss Cleo. Miss Cleo put phone psychics on the map. “I think that if anybody takes themselves too seriously, you run the risk of missing out on a lot of wonderful things”. Tony Shaff, the film’s producer, said he found her to be “warm and welcoming and bigger than life”. “What hardship you claim to see, but I can tell by your stare / Nigga you fugazi, sayin ya crew blazin, Like sayin Miss Cleo is a true Jamaican”, the Black Star rapper said. Classmates told New Times, that they didn’t remember her having an accent at the time.
“I’m more a shaman, an elder in a community who has visions and gives direction to people in their village”, she said. She ADORES being a “Newsy” for Brit + Co, covering all of the latest tidbits of awesomeness that you want to read about.
In 2002, Harris and PRN were charged with deceptive advertising and billing by the FTC, after charging customers hundreds of dollars for services they were led to believe were free.
Harris came out to The Advocate in 2006, saying she was inspired by a gay godson. I’m so sorry she is one of them.
Us Weekly noted Harris ended her psychic career in 2003, but she was consulted in recent years for the documentaries Becoming Psychic and Hotline.
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“When I came out to a number of friends in the late ’80s I had a number of friends who turned their backs on me and walked away”, she said.
