Golden Girls' southern belle Blanche dies, aged 76

RUE McClanahan, the Emmy-winning actress who brought the sexually liberated southern belle Blanche Devereaux to life on the hit TV series The Golden Girls, has died aged 76.

Her manager, Barbara Lawrence, said McClanahan died of a stroke at 1am yesterday.

She had undergone treatment for breast cancer in 1997 and later lectured to cancer support groups on "ageing gracefully". In 2009, she had heart bypass surgery.

McClanahan had an active career in off-Broadway and regional stage shows in the 1960s before she was tapped for TV in the 1970s for the key best-friend character on the series Maude, starring Beatrice Arthur.

After that hit series ended, in 1978, McClanahan landed the role as Aunt Fran on Mama's Family in 1983.

But her most loved role came in 1985 when she co-starred with Arthur, Betty White and Estelle Getty in The Golden Girls, a runaway hit that broke the sitcom mold by focusing on the foibles of four ageing – and frequently eccentric – women living together in Miami.

Golden Girls aimed to show "that when people mature, they add layers", she said in 1985. "They don't turn into other creatures. The truth is we all still have our child, our adolescent, and our young woman living in us."

Blanche, who called her father Big Daddy, was a frequent target for roommates Dorothy, Rose and the outspoken Sophia, who would fire off one-liners at Blanche such as: "Your life's an open blouse."

In 1987, McClanahan won an Emmy for her work on the show.

McClanahan was married six times. She called her 2007 memoir My First Five Husbands ... And The Ones Who Got Away.