Dee was best known for her work as an anchor/reporter at Chicago television station and national cable superstation WGN-TV (Channel 9) from 1972 to 1983, and director of community relations from 1983 to 2008.

Dee served as president and member of the leadership council of the Illinois chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) from 2009 until her death in 2022.

Dee described growing up with her stepmother in an interview with Contemporary Black Biography: I was terrifically abused by her... She adopted me [after Blouin's death] and changed my name so my family couldn't help me.

[citation needed]Dee returned to Chicago as a teenager and began attending Englewood Technical Prep Academy, graduating in 1955.

After high school, Dee returned to New Orleans to attend Xavier University, pursuing a degree in business administration; she eventually dropped out, finding a job as a salesperson with IBM to support her siblings.

[citation needed] Then-Illinois governor Jim Edgar gave Dee and WGN-TV a commendation in 1998 for contributing to a 50 percent increase in the number of adoptions in the state.

[10] In 2000, she was honored with an honorary Doctorate of Humanities by Lewis University; the following year, Dee won the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Silver Circle Award.

Dee was married to her second husband, Nicolas Fulop, from 1999 until her death which was reported on March 16, 2022;[12] according to family members, she had died overnight in her sleep at home.