Emmy-winning actress Mary Alice, known for her roles as Leticia “Lettie” Bostic on NBC‘s “A Different World” and as Effie Williams in the 1976 musical drama “Sparkle,” died Wednesday ...

One of five children, Mary Alice Smith was born on Dec. 3, 1936, in Indianola, Mississippi, and raised in Chicago. Her father, Sam, worked in a laundry, and her mother, Ozelar, worked in a factory.

In the 1980s, Mary Alice appeared on the first two seasons of A Different World, and dozens of films, including such Black classics as Malcolm X, The Inkwell, Down in the Delta, and Beat Street.