I’ve been married three times and I’m out.” Redd Foxx said that to a magazine interviewer while his third divorce ground through court. His next line explained where he thought the money belonged. The divorce money, he said, “should go to the children and not some guy.”
Foxx had no child by birth in any of his four marriages. One child, though, carried his surname from the age of nine. Debraca Denise entered his life through his second marriage, back in 1956. What she inherited from him, decades later, was not money. It was the bill.
Quick Bio Box Debraca Denise
| Full name | Debraca Denise |
| Known as | Debraca Foxx after her adoption |
| Known for | Adopted daughter of comedian Redd Foxx |
| Date of birth | Not publicly confirmed |
| Mother | Betty Jean Harris, dancer and showgirl |
| Adoptive father | Redd Foxx (born John Elroy Sanford) |
| Husband | Ralph Russell (married June 1975) |
| Screen credit | Doris Martin in Sanford and Son (1977); herself in Unsung Hollywood (2015, per listings) |
| Later role | First administrator of Redd Foxx’s estate |
| Life today | Not publicly documented |
| Net worth | Not officially known |
A Showgirl’s Daughter Becomes a Foxx
Betty Jean Harris worked the same nightclub circuit as Foxx. Both were on the bill one night when they met as fellow performers. She was a showgirl and dancer raising a young daughter alone.
Foxx married Harris on July 5, 1956. Soon afterwards he adopted her daughter, Debraca, who was nine years old. The girl took his stage surname and became Debraca Foxx.
That adoption made her his only child, then and forever. None of his four marriages produced a child by birth. Biographies of Foxx treat her as family without any footnote or asterisk.
The Mother Who Ran the Business
Harris gave up her own stage career under the marriage’s terms. In its place she ran much of her husband’s working life. His company, Redd Foxx Enterprises, held ventures including Los Angeles record stores.
Debraca grew up inside that working household. Her parents’ marriage lasted eighteen years in all. It carried the family from party records into sitcom fame. Sanford and Son began in 1972, when she was already grown.
Glimpsed in Print, Rarely Heard From
Debraca almost never spoke for the public record. Gossip columns of the era linked her name with Jackie Jackson. He was the eldest brother in the Jackson family group.
In November 1977, Jet magazine presented her as its beauty of the week. The feature ran under the title “A Real Foxx.” Beyond such glimpses, she gave fame a wide berth.
A $40,000 Wedding Her Father Missed
In June 1975, Debraca married Ralph Russell, a Los Angeles businessman. The ceremony filled the Grand Ballroom of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Reports put the cost of the celebration at $40,000.
One chair at that wedding stayed famously empty. Redd Foxx did not attend his daughter’s wedding. His split from her mother was barely a year old.
He had filed for divorce in May 1974, citing incompatibility. Their court fight included a restraining order over household property. Harris also had to return $110,000 taken from bank accounts. Accounts of the empty chair still argue about the reason.
Some retellings blame a mix-up over the wedding invitations. Others blame the divorce war between her parents. Reports agree on one detail: her uncle Kent Harris gave her away.
Doris Martin: One Night in Fred Sanford’s World
Television gave Debraca exactly one famous evening of her own. On January 14, 1977, she appeared in her father’s hit sitcom. The episode was “Fred Meets Redd,” from the show’s sixth season.
She played Doris Martin, a guest role in a crowded comic plot. Fred Sanford spends the episode chasing a Redd Foxx look-alike contest. His accountant meanwhile begs him to finish his income tax forms.
Episode guides credit her with two small television acting roles:
- Sanford and Son: “Fred Meets Redd” (1977), as Doris Martin
- Sanford (1980): one episode in the revival series
Nothing in the record suggests she chased an acting career. Both parts sat inside her father’s own television world.
Listings add one much later credit in her own name. She is credited as herself in the Redd Foxx episode of TV One’s Unsung Hollywood. The episode aired on February 25, 2015. No cast page confirms whether she filmed new material or appeared through archive clips.
The Fortune and the Tax Man
Foxx had once earned a reported $4 million in a single year. He blamed his later poverty on “very bad management.” Divorce settlements and a lavish lifestyle drained much of the rest.
His divorce from Debraca’s mother alone carried $10,000 monthly support payments. In 1983 he filed for bankruptcy protection. Tax liens for 1983 to 1986 already stood at $755,166.
On November 28, 1989, tax agents seized his Las Vegas home. They also took seven vehicles and around 300 household items. The bill by then had grown to $996,630.
Foxx said agents took “my necklace and the ID bracelet off my wrist.” He added that he was treated “like I wasn’t human at all.” Agents reportedly left him only his bed.
October 11, 1991: The Fall Nobody Believed
Foxx’s last marriage began only three months before his death. He wed Ka Ho Cho in Las Vegas in July 1991. “She saw me with a nickel,” he said of his bride.
On October 11, he collapsed during a rehearsal break at Paramount. He had been chatting with a television reporter moments earlier. A producer called him into a scene carrying no lines for him.
He crossed behind a chair, exactly as scripted, then fell. Nobody moved at first, because Fred Sanford had faked heart attacks for years. Della Reese reached him and heard him say “get my wife” twice.
Paramedics revived him briefly and rushed him to hospital. He died that day at Queen of Angels, aged sixty-eight. Eddie Murphy, his friend and producer, paid for the burial in Las Vegas.
Named to Run an Estate With Nothing in It
Foxx left no will when he died. Reporting put his unpaid tax bill near $3.6 million. A Nevada probate court placed his estate in Debraca’s hands as administrator.
An administrator answers to the court, not to a written will. Every royalty check and licensing fee now crossed her desk. So did every letter from the tax authorities.
The Widow’s Accusations
Ka Ho Cho challenged her stepdaughter’s handling of the estate. In court filings, the widow accused Debraca of failing to account properly. The missing paperwork, she claimed, covered royalties and licensing income.
Cho also claimed money meant for estate taxes was diverted. She pushed to have Debraca removed from the role entirely. Reporters covered the feud, but no verdict ever crowned a winner.
2006: A Judge Takes the File Away
The estate changed hands fifteen years after Foxx’s death. In 2006, a probate judge relieved Debraca of her duties. Contemporary reporting gave no clear public reason for the removal.
Clark County’s public administrator took over the tangled file. John J. Cahill inherited the case when he took office in 2007. He described Debraca and Cho as the likely sole heirs.
By 2010 his plan was to sell Foxx’s story itself. Cahill announced that the rights to Foxx’s life story would be marketed through probate court. His stated goal was “to settle Redd’s estate, pay all taxes owed.” Anything remaining after taxes would go to his heirs.
Offers over the years ranged from $20,000 to $2 million. None of them ever got beyond meetings and talk. The estate file outlasted Debraca’s part in it.
The story itself eventually found its buyer, though. In March 2026 the estate authorized a Foxx biopic, Seeing Redd. Bill Duke directs, with T.I. and Roger M. Bobb producing. No casting has been announced, and Debraca’s name appears nowhere in its coverage.
A follow-up announcement in April 2026 said development had accelerated. Screenplay work was under way, and talks with production companies and distributors were moving. Casting and production details were promised in the months ahead. The film will also cover Foxx’s backstage fight for Black writers and directors.
Where the Record on Debraca Denise Stops
After the court years, and one listing-level television credit in 2015, Debraca Denise vanishes from reliable print. No verified interview with her has surfaced in decades. No confirmed photograph, appearance or public statement carries a recent date.
Search engines still promise fresh news about her life today. Those pages recycle the same weddings, episodes and court dates. Anything dated later rests on guesswork, as the next section shows.
An honest profile therefore ends her story soon after the courtroom era. Her home, her work and her health today are undocumented. That silence is itself the last verified fact about her.
Printed as Fact, Proven Nowhere
Debraca’s thin record attracts confident inventions online. Four families of claims collapse under the lightest checking.
Three Birth Years, No Birth Record
Profile sites print her birth year as 1947. Others choose 1950, and at least one picks 1957. One page calls her nine years old in 1956 and born in 1957.
Both numbers cannot stand in the same short life. The nine-in-1956 detail, carried by stronger sources, points near 1947. No birth record has ever been published to settle it.
The Artist Career Nobody Can Trace
One glossy profile graduates her from a University of the Arts. It makes her a sculptor still creating new work today. No school, gallery, exhibition or interview supports a word of it.
Her verified screen work stays small: the 1977 sitcom role, one revival episode, and a 2015 listing as herself. Everything grander was pasted on by strangers decades later.
A Fortune Figure With No Paper Trail
Some pages price her net worth in the hundreds of thousands. The figures shift from page to page, from $300,000 up to $550,000. No salary, property record or court document backs any of them. Her finances stayed private even while the estate’s were public.
The same pages often crown her his sole legal heir. The county’s own administrator counted two heirs, not one. One newer page even invents a son for her, complete with a name. No court paper or interview has ever mentioned a child of hers. Even her title gets inflated, from administrator to executor.
FAQs Debraca Denise
Who is Debraca Denise?
Debraca Denise is the adopted daughter of comedian Redd Foxx. Her mother was Betty Jean Harris, a dancer and showgirl. Foxx adopted her after the wedding and she took his surname.
Was Debraca Denise Redd Foxx’s biological daughter?
No, she was not. Debraca was Betty Jean Harris’s daughter from before the marriage. Foxx became her father through adoption, not by birth. He never had a biological child in four marriages.
Who did Debraca Denise marry?
She married Los Angeles businessman Ralph Russell in June 1975. Their wedding filled a Beverly Wilshire ballroom and reportedly cost $40,000. Foxx, mid-divorce from her mother, did not attend.
What was Debraca Denise’s role in Redd Foxx’s estate?
A court made her administrator of the estate in 1991. His widow accused her of failing to account for royalty income. A judge removed her in 2006 without a public explanation.
Where is Debraca Denise now?
Nobody can say from any reliable source. Her name leaves the verified record after the estate court years. Sites that print a current city or job are guessing.
Conclusion
Debraca Denise’s story bends around a man who filled every room. She entered his life as a nine-year-old with a new surname. She left the public record holding his debts, not his fortune.
Between those points sit a ballroom wedding, one sitcom evening. A fifteen-year court fight completes the short list of verified chapters. The rest belongs to her, unrecorded and unshared.
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