RANCHO MIRAGE (CNS) - Legendary actress Carol Channing died of natural causes early this morning at her home in Rancho Mirage after a legendary Broadway and television career spanning decades. She was 97.
Publicist B. Harlan Boll saids Channing died of natural causes at 12:31 a.m.. She had suffered two strokes in the past year.
“It is with extreme heartache, that I have to announce the passing of an original industry pioneer, legend and icon -- Miss Carol Channing,” Boll said. “I admired her before I met her, and have loved her since the day she stepped -- or fell, rather -- into my life. It is so very hard to see the final curtain lower on a woman who has been a daily part of my life for more than a third of it.”
Channing may have been best known for starring in more than 5,000 performance of “Hello Dolly!” -- both on Broadway and elsewhere. A Seattle native born on Jan. 31, 19-21 ... Channing got her start in the 1949 Broadway play "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."
Funeral plans were not immediately announced.
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