Florence Henderson, who played the iconic TV mother in “The Brady Bunch,” died on Thursday at age 82.
Henderson had been hospitalized the night before she died because she had suffered from heart failure, according to her manager Kayla Pressman. On Thursday night, she died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles while surrounded by friends and family.
She is most famous for her role in “Brady Bunch,” which premiered in 1969 and was among the first television shows to introduce blended families to TV. As anyone who has heard the opening theme song knows, Henderson played a single mother raising three girls who met and married a single father raising three boys. Even after the show ended its run in 1974, it has continued to be beloved and has remained a classic.
The show brought its cast fame and prestige, with Henderson at one point remarking, “We had to have security guards with us. Fans were hanging on our doors. We couldn’t go out by ourselves. We were like the Beatles!”
“It represents what people always wanted: a loving family. It’s such a gentle, innocent, sweet show, and I guess it proved there’s always an audience for that,” Henderson said in 1999.
Henderson had most recently appeared in a commercial with Tracee Ellis Ross for the LG ProBake Convention Oven.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGUumQyWYSw