Arts & Entertainment

Update: Houston Student Who FaceTimed With Beyoncé Has Died

Ebony Banks, who a senior at Alief Hastings High School, said talking with star was a dream come true.

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UPDATED ON MARCH 27: Ebony Banks passed away last Saturday night, days after she fulfilled a dream by talking with Beyoncé via FaceTime. A spokesperson with the Alief Independent School district announced her death. A candlelight vigil was held for Banks, a high school senior, on Sunday evening at LeRoy Crump Stadium.

HOUSTON, TX — She might be a busy mother, but Beyoncé took the time recently to fulfill the wish of a Houston high school senior who's battling stage four cancer.

Ebony Banks, who has spent most of her senior year being treated at the MD Anderson Cancer Center here, told some of her classmates at Alief Hastings High School that one of her dreams was to meet Queen B, so they went to work. They created the hashtag #EbobMeetsBeyonce and plastered it everywhere, including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Ebob is Banks's nickname.

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"We just decided she should, you know, meet Beyoncé," Shanya McKnight, one of the friends who helped make Banks's dream come true, told KHOU. "We started this hashtag to see how far we could get. We started hashtagging it, tagging people, we tagged the news. Mostly, we tagged Beyoncé we wanted to get her attention that Ebony wanted to meet her."

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The plan came to fruition, and on Wednesday afternoon Beyoncé FaceTimed Banks.

Earlier this month, school officials held a special early graduation ceremony for Banks in the hospital.

Beyoncé facetiming with Ebony, a fan with a rare cancer disease whose wish was to meet Beyoncé ------------------------------------------------ "High school student Ebony Banks, who has stage four cancer, had her dream came true Wednesday when she received a FaceTime call from her hero, Beyoncé. Banks — who attends Alief Hastings High School in Houston, Texas — has spent most of her senior year at MD Anderson Cancer Center fighting a rare stage four cancer, according to KIAH, a local news station. Earlier this month, the school district held a special early graduation ceremony for Banks, whose nickname is “Ebob,” in the hospital. And as the ultimate graduation present, Banks’ friends and classmates created the hashtag #EBOBMEETSBEYONCE on social media so that she could meet with Beyoncé in an effort to help make one of her biggest dreams come true." "Beyonce is one of her idols. She admires her so much, so we're trying to put that on Twitter and Instagram to get Beyonce's attention," said Gutierrez. --------------------------------------------------God Bless you, Ebony! We're praying for you beautiful! #BeyHive
A post shared by Beyoncé (@beylite) on Mar 22, 2017 at 4:24pm PDT

Some of Banks's fellow students made a video about their friend to honor her.

Courtesy photo

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