(NEXSTAR) – Jamie Foxx is mourning the loss of his younger sister, DeOndra Dixon, who has died at 36.
“My heart is shattered into a million pieces… my beautiful loving sister Deondra has transitioned,” Foxx wrote on Instagram. “I say transitioned because she will always be alive… anyone who knew my sis… knew that she was a bright light.”
The “Django Unchained” actor recalled her wide grin and love of dancing, saying that he has a hole in his heart.
“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,” Foxx added, joking that she gave her “boyfriend” Chris Brown “a run for his money.”
“Well I know she is in heaven now dancing with her wings on…tho my pain is unbelievable I smile when I think of all of the great memories that she left me,” Foxx wrote.
DeOndra Dixon, who was born in Dallas, Texas with Down syndrome, was named an ambassador for the Global Down Syndrome Foundation in 2011.
She was the inspiration for and the first recipient of the Quincy Jones Exceptional Advocacy Award, the foundation’s highest honor, after the famed record producer himself “introduced us to DeOndra as one of the most articulate, irrepressible, magnetic people he had ever met,” according to a statement on the GDSF website.
Dixon died Monday, October 19, according to the foundation.
“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,” GDSF officials said. “She is no doubt a true angel looking down on us, just as she was always an angel on earth.”