Singer and actor Traci Braxton, who appeared on the reality show Braxton Family Values with her sisters, has died at age 50, her family said on Saturday.
Braxton died after a private battle with esophageal cancer, her husband Kevin Surratt said in a statement to People.
“We have come to a time where we must inform the public that after a year of privately undergoing a series of treatment for Esophageal cancer our beloved Traci Braxton has gone on to glory,” he said.
Traci’s son, Kevin Surratt Jr., wrote a moving tribute to his mother on Instagram on Saturday.
“When I heard the news about my mother being sick first thing she said was ‘I’m going to fight and beat this,’” he wrote. “She fought to the end and today she’s at peace. I love my mother forever and this hurts so much but I’m at peace knowing she’s isn’t in pain anymore. I love you ma I’m going to miss you.”
Traci’s sister, the Grammy-winning singer Toni Braxton, also posted a tribute on Instagram with a black-and-white picture of the five sisters posing together.
The Un-break My Heart singer called her sister “a bright light, a wonderful daughter, an amazing sister, a loving mother, wife, grandmother and a respected performer,” in a statement shared on behalf of the entire Braxton family.
“We will miss her dearly,” the statement said. Traci is also survived by her brother, Michael Braxton Jr.
Traci was born in 1971 to Evelyn Jackson and Michael Conrad Braxton Sr. She released her debut solo album, Crash & Burn, in 2014. She released her second album, On Earth, four years later.
The singer also appeared in movies, including 2018′s Sinners Wanted and the 2019 film All In. She also had a radio show on BLIS.FM titled The Traci Braxton Show, which debuted in 2013.
Traci starred alongside her sisters, Toni Braxton, Tamar Braxton, Towanda Braxton and Trina Braxton, in the WE tv reality series Braxton Family Values, which premiered in 2011. The show’s seventh season aired in 2020.
The network paid tribute to the singer on Twitter, writing that she was “gone far too soon.”
“We celebrate her life and memory and send our heartfelt condolences to the entire Braxton family during this difficult time,” the statement read. “Her light and spirit live on.”
