Miss Cleo, American psychic, Died at 53

  Media

Youree Dell Harris was born on August 12, 1962, and died on July 26, 2016.

She was an American television personality.

Youree was best known as Miss Cleo,

She was a spokeswoman for a psychic pay-per-call service from 1997 to 2003.

She used many different aliases, including LaShawnda Williams, Corvette Mama, Elenore St. Julian, Desiree Canterlaw, Janet Snyder, Maria Delcampo, Christina Garcia, Cleomili Harris and Youree Perris.

During the late 1990s, she started working for the Psychic Readers Network under the name Cleo.

Also she appeared as a television infomercial psychic in which she had claimed she was from Jamaica.

The Psychic Readers Network is said to have coined the title “Miss Cleo” and sent unsolicited emails, some of which stated, “[Miss Cleo has] been authorized to issue you a Special Tarot Reading!… it is vital that you call immediately!” Charges of deceptive advertising and of fraud on the part of the Psychic Readers Network began to surface around this time.

During 2001, the Access Resource Services doing business as Psychic Readers Network was sued in various lawsuits brought by (among others) Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida, and the Federal Communications Commission, although reports later said that “many customers were satisfied with the service”.

During 2002, the Federal Trade Commission charged the company’s owners and Harris’ promoters, Steven Feder and Peter Stotz, with deceptive advertising, billing, and collection practices; Harris was not indicted.

Miss Cleo promoters agreed to settle for a fraction of the amount they took in.

Reports came out that Harris was actually born in Los Angeles, and that her parents were U.S. citizens.

She was a lesbian.

She is the voice behind the character Auntie Poulet in the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

She had colon cancer which eventually spread to her other organ.

Miss Cleo passed away at 63 years old.