Emmy-Award winning actress Rue McClanahan, Blanche Devereaux on the still-popular 80s sitcom Golden Girls, has passed away at the age of 76.  Her manager said that she died early Thursday morning from a possible brain hemorrhage.  A lecturer on “aging gracefully,” she had suffered a bout with breast cancer in 1997 and a heart bypass in 2009.  In addition to Golden Girls, she also starred in various roles on television, movies and theatre including headmistress Mistress Morrible in Wicked on Broadway.  According to imdb.com, her first role was in 1961′s The Grass Eater.  In 2008, she appeared on the LOGO series Sordid Lives: The Series as the elderly mother of a drag queen.

McClanahan was born Eddi Rue McClanahan in Healdton, Oklahoma in 1934.  She graduated with honors from the University of Tulsa with a degree in Theatre Arts and German.  She was married six times and has one son, Mark Bish.