Florence Henderson, who starred in TV’s ‘The Brady Bunch,’ dies at 82

Henderson passed away on Friday morning at a fresh 82, three days after attending a live taping of “Dancing with the Stars” in support of her friend and former on-screen daughter, Maureen McCormick. The entire “Brady Bunch” cast, including Henderson, reprised their roles for several TV specials over the years, as the show became an unexpected cultural touchstone.

“I have not had many people this close to me pass”, he said, adding that Henderson’s death due to heart failure came very unexpectedly – he last spoke to her in the spring.

She made her first stage appearance in NY at 19 – a one-line role in a play called Wish You Were Here.

Florence Henderson, who was in attendance at the Dancing with the Stars finale on Monday as IndyCar racer James Hinchcliffe performed, died Thursday night.

“Our fans expect Florence Henderson to be (at the race)”, Boles said.

Henderson, who was born in IN in 1934, had leading roles in several stage musicals, including Oklahoma! Her mother had abandoned the family when Henderson was 12 years old.

That made her a household name. She became a dear friend.

Henderson said during a pre-race interview that she enjoyed the change of pace, of being freed from a singing commitment at the race. She gave us an idealized template for how a matriarch should be: patient and loving with an on-trend wardrobe and just a hint of sternness when her kids were “taking a joke too far”.

Afterwards, she moved on to television.

She said: “She’ll be remembered as a real class act – someone with so much talent”.

Williams says, “I think it’s good to remember she managed a great deal in her life”. What was she like to the six actors playing her children when the cameras stopped rolling? At 14, he got the role of the eldest boy on “The Brady Bunch”.

Henderson had four children with Bernstein.

Pressman said she is survived by her children, Barbara, Joseph, Robert and Lizzie, their spouses and five grandchildren. They were even neighbors for a few years out in Marina del Rey, Calif.

In 1987, she married John Kappas, a hypnotherapist.

“We had to have security guards with us”, she later recalled. He died in 2002. Were you sad to hear of Florence Henderson’s death? “I’ll miss u dearly #RIPFlorence”. Initially, she was meant to have been a comedic character, similar to Ball, but was rewritten to be the more familiar, maternal figure after it was felt that Ann B. Davis’ character Alice, the household maid, would serve as the comic relief.