Flo Anthony carried Black entertainment reporting into newsrooms and television roundtables where few Black women had been given a seat, then made that access her own beat across print, radio and television. The veteran celebrity journalist, who broke barriers at the New York Post and later wrote the New York Amsterdam News's 'Go With the Flo' column, died on August 6, 2026, at 74.

Anthony grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the daughter of two educators. She studied fine arts at Howard University, then came to New York hoping to act and also worked as a teacher. Her path into journalism ran through publicity and boxing, where she worked around champions including Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes and Michael Spinks.

In 1985, Anthony entered the New York Post as an agate clerk in the sports department. She moved to features within a year and began writing about performers including Tracy Camilla Johns and Jermaine Jackson. The transfer was not her plan. 'I went kicking and screaming. I did not go as a happy camper,' she told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2014.

Anthony became the first woman to work in the Post's sports department and, by her account, the first Black journalist in its entertainment and Page Six departments. At the 1988 premiere of Spike Lee's School Daze, she landed the first major scoop of her entertainment career, the marriage of heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and actor Robin Givens. Her method was direct and personal. 'I call people up and ask what the deal is,' she said in the Inquirer profile. 'Most of the time, people will tell you the truth.'

After nearly a decade at the Post, she took her own column to Her New York and later wrote 'Eye on the Stars' for the National Examiner, becoming the first Black woman to hold a column at a supermarket tabloid. Her weekly 'Go With the Flo' became a New York Amsterdam News fixture in 2001 and also appeared in the Philadelphia Sunday Sun and Columbus Times. The New York Amsterdam News described her work there as part of a career that also included the New York Daily News, Black Noir and Black Elegance.

Anthony spent six seasons as a contributor and later a co-host on E!'s The Gossip Show. She appeared on E! True Hollywood Story installments and brought commentary to Inside Edition, The Insider and Entertainment Tonight, as well as TV One's Unsung, Unsung Hollywood and Life After.

Through Dottie Media Group, Anthony hosted the syndicated programs Gossip on the Go With Flo and Flo Anthony's Big Apple Buzz, reaching roughly 20 radio markets. The company extended her work beyond any single newsroom or network.

Anthony also turned her knowledge of celebrity culture into fiction. Her mystery Deadly Stuff Players followed a prominent Black gossip columnist navigating a Hollywood mystery, drawing its setting and professional detail from a world Anthony knew closely. Simon & Schuster published the book in 2013 and identified One Last Deadly Play as its sequel.

Boxing remained part of her personal and professional life. Anthony and Michael Spinks began dating in 1987, and she managed the former champion's business affairs. They married in January 2026. She also helped writer Jack Hirsch secure Spinks's participation in an authorized biography, which was published that March.

After Anthony's death, CNN entertainment journalist Lisa Respers France wrote that she was 'deeply indebted' to a columnist who did more than report gossip. 'She was so important to the culture,' France wrote on Instagram. The tribute captured the reach of Anthony's work beyond any scoop: she made Black celebrity journalism visible as reporting, a profession and a path.

Anthony's columns preserve a week-by-week record of Black entertainment life, while her radio programs, television appearances and novels show how readily that reporting traveled. The newsroom doors she crossed, the national platforms she occupied and the media company she built remain concrete parts of the wider field she helped open.