Engagement" which aired February 9, 1974. She was 82 years old at the time. All three actors who portrayed Tom, Helen, and Jenny Willis on that episode were replaced with different actors by the time The Jeffersons became a spin-off on January 18, 1975, but producers retained Cully as Mother Jefferson. During the first 17 episodes of the third season of The Jeffersons, she was absent due to a severe case of pneumonia caused by a collapsed lung. Upon her recovery she returned to the show. Her last credited performance was an appearance in the ninth episode of the fourth season entitled "The Last Leaf", which aired November 12, 1977, three months before her death. No special episode was created to center on her death, but it was addressed in the second episode of the fifth season entitled "Homecoming (pt 1)", which aired September 27, 1978, seven months after her death. Personal life and death Cully was married once, to James M. Brown, Jr. from 1914 until his death in 1968. Together, Cully and Brown had four children: Mrs. Mary Gale "Polly" Buggs (wife of John A. Buggs, deputy director of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, 1917–2005), Emerson T. Brown (1925–1980), James M. Brown III (1915–1972), and a baby daughter (who died in 1919). Cully died at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on February 28, 1978, from lung cancer, aged 86. Services were held on March 2, 1978, at the Church of Christian Fellowship, in Los Angeles. She was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) in the Freedom Mausoleum, Columbarium of Victory. In attendance were the cast and crew of The Jeffersons, including show producer Norman Lear. Cully was posthumously awarded an NAACP special Image Award on June 9, 1978, at the 11th Annual NAACP Awards ceremony. Filmography References External links 1892 births 1978 deaths African-American actresses American stage actresses American film actresses American television actresses Actresses from Worcester, Massachusetts Actresses from Jacksonville, Florida Deaths from lung cancer in California Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) 20th-century American actresses 20th-century Methodists American United Methodists African-American Methodists