While Terrell was finally being established as a star, the migraines and headaches she had suffered from childhood were becoming more constant. While she complained of pains, she insisted to people close to her that she was well enough to perform. However, on October 14, 1967, while performing "Your Precious Love" with Gaye at Hampden–Sydney College, just outside the town of Farmville, Virginia, Terrell collapsed into Gaye's arms onstage. Shortly after returning from Virginia, doctors diagnosed a malignant tumor on the right side of her brain. She underwent brain surgery at Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia on January 13, 1968.