Anthony died Aug. 6 after battling cancer, according to Jack Hirsch, biographer for her husband, former heavyweight boxing champion Michael Spinks, The Amsterdam News reported. The couple, who had been together since 1987, married in a civil ceremony at a New York City courthouse on Jan. 6.
A longtime resident of East Harlem and a graduate of Howard University, Anthony built a career that broke barriers and opened doors for African American journalists in the entertainment industry. She began her journalism career writing for the gossip pages of the Philadelphia Sun before making history as the first African-American reporter to work in the famed Page Six gossip department at the New York Post. She later became the first African-American to write a celebrity column for The National Examiner.
Anthony‘s influence extended far beyond newspaper pages. Her syndicated “Go With the Flo” column became a fixture in the New York Amsterdam News, where she covered celebrity news, entertainment, and exclusive Hollywood stories for more than two decades. The column also appeared in publications including the Philadelphia Sunday Sun, Columbus Times, BRE Magazine and the Oklahoma Eagle. She also contributed to the New York Daily News’ popular Confidential column and served as publisher and editor-in-chief of Black Noir magazine and editor-in-chief of Black Elegance magazine.
Before becoming one of America’s best-known entertainment journalists, Anthony worked as a publicist for boxing icons including Muhammad Ali, Michael Spinks, Larry Holmes, Mike McCallum, Matthew Saad Muhammad, and legendary promoter Butch Lewis.
Known for her insider access, Anthony covered some of the biggest names in entertainment, including Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, and O.J. Simpson. Her reporting and commentary made her a familiar face on television throughout the 1990s and beyond, with appearances on Entertainment Tonight, Inside Edition, The Insider, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, HLN, Court TV, and numerous daytime talk shows, including those hosted by Joan Rivers, Ricki Lake, Geraldo Rivera, Sally Jessy Raphael, and Maury Povich.
She also spent six seasons as both a contributor and co-host of E! Entertainment’s The Gossip Show and appeared in numerous episodes of E! True Hollywood Story. Through her company, Dottie Media Group LLC, Anthony hosted the nationally syndicated radio programs Gossip To Go With Flo and Flo Anthony’s Big Apple Buzz, reaching more than three million listeners daily across more than 20 radio markets.
Harlem World Magazine publisher, founder, and visual artist Danny Tisdale met with Flo in 2002 to discuss the Magazine concept (the print platform launched in 2003). Tisdale said, “Flo was great; she had great ideas, and we had laughs – that’s what I remember about her.”
Anthony was also an accomplished author, publishing four novels, including “Keeping Secrets, Telling Lies,” “Deadly Stuff Players,” “One Last Deadly Play,” and “Last Call for a Deadly Diva.”
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