Florence Henderson, 'The Brady Bunch' actress, dies at 82

Carol Brady, the cheerful mom in 70's sicom "The Brady Bunch" was the ultimate TV mom. Florence Henderson, who played her best-known role as the most beloved mom of the Brady Bunch for five seasons has died from a heart failure. She was 82.

Family and friends had surrounded Henderson's hospital bedside, Pressman said.

She began her career as an ingénue soprano in stage musicals in the 1950s. She starred in “Fanny” on Broadway in the mid-1950s, when she was in her early 20s; “The King and I” at the Los Angeles Music Center; “South Pacific” at Lincoln Center; national tours of “Oklahoma!” and “The Sound of Music”; and “The Girl Who Came to Supper” (1963), Noël Coward’s last original Broadway musical.

“The Brady Bunch “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 told the AP in 1999.”

— Florence Henderson