R.I.P. Mrs. G

What's to say - Charlotte Rae passed away.

The poems just write themselves for her.

The woman made it to 92 after beating the shit out of pancreatic cancer, so it's not like her life was tragically cut short or anything. That clearly doesn't mean that it isn't sad.

I regularly talk about my major childhood influences (Jo, Miss Piggy, David Bowie), and to the extent that Mrs. G helped raise Jo, I guess she helped to raise me too.

That's to say nothing of the way in which Charlotte Rae (as opposed to Mrs. G) helped to raise each of the Facts girls (as actual young girls as opposed to just characters). Each girl made a statement about Charlotte Rae's passing. She'd been their friend for forty years, through their formative stages.

We know and adore her as Mrs. G, a role that she played in three different series (Diff'rent Strokes, Facts, and Hello, Larry, a sitcom about 70s/80s sitcoms). But Mrs. G was a role that came late in her career. She came of age as a comedic actress before television was king. Check this out:

The woman was nominated for two Tony Awards in the '60s, and two Emmy Awards, in '75 and '82. She went to theater school at Northwestern with Paul Lynde and Cloris Leachman. She did some hilarious commercial appearances.

Here's one from just before she became the Mrs. Garrett we all adore.

I spent some time with You Tube's search results for "Charlotte Rae," and I don't discourage you from doing so. It's interesting to think that some of her most remarkable work was in theater before having everything on You Tube was a thing, I'm sure her full portfolio includes dozens if not hundreds of performances that are lost to time. There are few reasons I'd want to go back in time, but to catch Charlotte Rae live on Broadway is one of them.

In typical Mrs. Garrett fashion, even though we think she's pretty damn cool, Charlotte Rae is even cooler than we know she is.

May this kickass woman rest in peace.