Emmy-winning actress Valerie Mahaffey has died, family members and her rep confirm. She was 71.
The “Young Sheldon” alum passed away on Friday in Los Angeles after losing her cancer battle, her publicist tells Page Six.
“I have lost the love of my life, and America has lost one of its most endearing actresses,” Mahaffey’s husband, Joseph Kell, adds in his own statement to us Saturday. “She will be missed.”
Mahaffey and Kell’s daughter, Alice Richards, added via Facebook, per the BBC, “I don’t really have the words to say right now. Cancer sucks.”
“I’ll look for you in all the fun moments of life,” she continued. “I know that’s where you’ll be.”
Mahaffey was born on June 16, 1953, in Sumatra, Indonesia, and was raised there until age 11.
According to IMDb, one of her first acting gigs was on the ABC daytime soap opera “The Doctors.”
Mahaffey played Ashley Bennett for over 100 episodes from 1979 to 1981, and earned a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for the part.
In 1992, she then won an Emmy for her work as the hypochondriac Eve in “Northern Exposure.”
Later in life, Mahaffey continued to rise to prominence by landing roles on shows like “Wings,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Devious Maids” and “Big Sky.”
It appears she led a private life and not much was publicly known about her recent cancer struggles.
Mahaffey is survived by her husband and their one daughter.
