I heard she died recently in a San Antonio hospital. No official news source yet. I read it on IMDB.

Why start a thread without having an official source to back it up? I've already learned my lesson on this and suggest this thread be locked or deleted. Many rumors of celebrity deaths have been started on IMDb and have wound up being untrue and I hope that's the case here.

I hope so too. But if it is false, feel free to delete it.

Charles, looks like I was right.

Charles, looks like I was right.


Yeah, I know. They can merge the threads.

Why start a thread without having an official source to back it up? I've already learned my lesson on this and suggest this thread be locked or deleted. Many rumors of celebrity deaths have been started on IMDb and have wound up being untrue and I hope that's the case here.
Well here's a decent source. (http://www.tmz.com/2014/06/01/ann-b-davis-dead-alice-from-the-brady-bunch-dies-at-age-88/)

Well here's a decent source. (http://www.tmz.com/2014/06/01/ann-b-davis-dead-alice-from-the-brady-bunch-dies-at-age-88/)


I know but thanks anyway.

Personally, I think there should be a rule here against starting these types of threads without a verifiable link to back it up and I don't mean an IMDb or Wikipedia rumor. I've done the same thing myself and have vowed not to do it again.

Link (http://www.tmz.com/2014/06/01/ann-b-davis-dead-alice-from-the-brady-bunch-dies-at-age-88/#ixzz33Qc4MfZQ)

TV legend Ann B. Davis who played Alice on "The Brady Bunch" has died ... TMZ has learned.

According to the couple she lived with ... Ann fell in her bathroom early this morning and hit her head causing grave damage. We're told she never regained consciousness.

Her roommate says Davis had been pretty healthy for an 88-year old woman -- and her death was a total shock. In fact, she even walked downstairs to say goodnight before going to bed.

We're told the members of the church she was close with are currently planning funeral arrangements.

Another confirmation -- http://fox6now.com/2014/06/01/tmz-com-ann-b-davis-the-brady-bunchs-alice-dead-at-88/

TMZ.com is reporting Ann B. Davis — who played “Alice” on “The Brady Bunch” died on Sunday, June 1st.

TMZ says according to the couple Davis lived with, she fell in her bathroom early Sunday morning and hit her head.

TMZ says Davis never regained consciousness.

Davis’ roommate tells TMZ Davis had been pretty healthy for an 88-year-old woman — and her death was a total shock.

TMZ says the members of the church Davis was close with are currently planning funeral arrangements.

A tragic end, but at least she did not suffer.

That's not a confirmation, all that site is doing is repeating what TMZ has already reported.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/01/showbiz/ann-b-davis-dies/index.html



(CNN) -- Ann B. Davis, known for her role as housekeeper Alice Nelson on "The Brady Bunch," died Sunday, close friend Bishop William Frey said. She was 88.

According to Frey, Davis fell and hit her head Saturday morning in her bathroom. She suffered a subdural hematoma and never regained consciousness.

Appearing in her trademark light blue maid's uniform with a white apron, Alice anchored "The Brady Bunch" with her cheerful attitude and witty one-liners.

In a 2004 interview with the Archive of American Television, Davis described how she created the character.

"I made up a background story. I did have a twin sister, so I used that as a basis. ... I cared very much about this family. It was my family. It was close to my family as Alice would ever get. I would have died for any single one of them at any point," she said. "You know, they wrote me such gorgeous things to do, as the intermediary between the kids and the adults, and between the boys and the girls. And they gave me funny things to do."

In real life, Davis said she wasn't quite as handy around the house as her beloved character.

"I basically don't do that well with children, although my sister says I'm a great aunt," she told People, adding that she hates to cook.

"When it's my turn in the house," she told the magazine, "we just eat out."

Davis had planned to study medicine at the University of Michigan but caught the acting bug from her brother, who was a dancer in the national company of "Oklahoma," according to a biography of the actress on IMDb.com.

Her big break in Hollywood came when she won the role of Charmaine "Schultzy" Schultz, the secretary on the 1950s sitcom "The Bob Cummings Show," IMDb said.

But to generations of American TV viewers, she was best known as Alice.

Frey, who knew Davis for 38 years, said fans often told her that they felt like they'd been raised by the character of Alice.

"Look how well you turned out," she would reply.

"All of wish we had an Alice. I wish I had an Alice," Davis told People magazine in 1992.

"What you see on 'The Brady Bunch' was who she was," Frey said. "She was a very faithful Christian person."

Davis mostly retired from show business in the late 1970s to settle down in an Episcopal community.

"I'm convinced we all have a God-shaped space in us, and until we fill that space with God, we'll never know what it is to be whole," she told People.

Even as she turned her focus more toward religion, she appeared in commercials and several stage productions.

In the 1995 "The Brady Bunch" movie, she played a truck driver, persuading a runaway Jan to return home.

She told the Archive of American Television that she loved working on the small screen.

"The neatest thing about television is that they write for you. ... They find out what you can do, what you do best, how it works, and how they can use you. And so from there on, it's wonderful. Because it's different. It's not like playing the same play forever and ever and ever," she said. "But the character's still the same. It just gets better and more developed. So that's great fun."

http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/01/showbiz/ann-b-davis-dies/index.html



(CNN) -- Ann B. Davis, known for her role as housekeeper Alice Nelson on "The Brady Bunch," died Sunday, close friend Bishop William Frey said. She was 88.

According to Frey, Davis fell and hit her head Saturday morning in her bathroom. She suffered a subdural hematoma and never regained consciousness.

Appearing in her trademark light blue maid's uniform with a white apron, Alice anchored "The Brady Bunch" with her cheerful attitude and witty one-liners.

In a 2004 interview with the Archive of American Television, Davis described how she created the character.

"I made up a background story. I did have a twin sister, so I used that as a basis. ... I cared very much about this family. It was my family. It was close to my family as Alice would ever get. I would have died for any single one of them at any point," she said. "You know, they wrote me such gorgeous things to do, as the intermediary between the kids and the adults, and between the boys and the girls. And they gave me funny things to do."

In real life, Davis said she wasn't quite as handy around the house as her beloved character.

"I basically don't do that well with children, although my sister says I'm a great aunt," she told People, adding that she hates to cook.

"When it's my turn in the house," she told the magazine, "we just eat out."

Davis had planned to study medicine at the University of Michigan but caught the acting bug from her brother, who was a dancer in the national company of "Oklahoma," according to a biography of the actress on IMDb.com.

Her big break in Hollywood came when she won the role of Charmaine "Schultzy" Schultz, the secretary on the 1950s sitcom "The Bob Cummings Show," IMDb said.

But to generations of American TV viewers, she was best known as Alice.

Frey, who knew Davis for 38 years, said fans often told her that they felt like they'd been raised by the character of Alice.

"Look how well you turned out," she would reply.

"All of wish we had an Alice. I wish I had an Alice," Davis told People magazine in 1992.

"What you see on 'The Brady Bunch' was who she was," Frey said. "She was a very faithful Christian person."

Davis mostly retired from show business in the late 1970s to settle down in an Episcopal community.

"I'm convinced we all have a God-shaped space in us, and until we fill that space with God, we'll never know what it is to be whole," she told People.

Even as she turned her focus more toward religion, she appeared in commercials and several stage productions.

In the 1995 "The Brady Bunch" movie, she played a truck driver, persuading a runaway Jan to return home.

She told the Archive of American Television that she loved working on the small screen.

"The neatest thing about television is that they write for you. ... They find out what you can do, what you do best, how it works, and how they can use you. And so from there on, it's wonderful. Because it's different. It's not like playing the same play forever and ever and ever," she said. "But the character's still the same. It just gets better and more developed. So that's great fun."

Thanks for the information. I enjoyed watching Ann on "The Brady Bunch". She did a great job. :)

R.I.P Ann B. Davis (a.k.a Alice)

I loved watching the Brady Bunch when I was a kid back in the 70s. Friday Nights used to be must see tv with:

The Brady Bunch
The Partridge Family
The Odd Couple
Room 222
Love American Style

Friday Nights have never been as good as they were in the early 70s.

:rip: Ann B Davis

How very sad. To me she always made the show funny.

:rip:

:rip:

I just read the sad news. She was a great at playing Alice, plus she seemed to be a healthy, energetic person at all her stages of life. Sad she had to go that way.

Yahoo has this link:

https://tv.yahoo.com/news/brady-bunch-star-ann-b-davis-dead-88-224606806.html

RIP to my fellow Schenectady native. :(

Sad news, just saw her appear recently on The Brady Bunch reunion show on CBS The Talk. R.I.P., Ann B. Davis.

R.I.P. Ann B. :(

Florence, Susan and Martha Quinn (from the 1999s "The Brady's) speak here about Ann's passing.

http://www.examiner.com/article/brady-bunch-stars-react-to-death-of-ann-b-davis?cid=RSS-EX-TV

So sad. I didn't realize that she was that old! RIP dear Alice:(

R.I.P. Ann. Thanks for all the memories. :(

So sad to hear about Ann B. Davis's passing and may she rest in peace.

(Falling is never a good thing, but unfortunately, it often has very bad consequences for the elderly. I had a great Aunt who was 96 and in great health for her age. One day she took a bad fall, hurt her head, and went right downhill getting Alzheimer's. It's scary.)

Personally, I think there should be a rule here against starting these types of threads without a verifiable link to back it up and I don't mean an IMDb or Wikipedia rumor.Its real buddy... She fell and hit her head :(

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/brady-bunch-star-ann-b-davis-dead-88-224606806.html

Very sad............... I love Alice!!

So sorry to hear about her. She's and angel in heaven now. RIP.

So sad--I always thought my friend Jim Stingl's mom reminded me of Alice.

R.I.P Ann,

The loss of "Alice Nelson" is very sad, but it sounds like she did not suffer, which is also a blessing. As a kid, I was not a fan of Alice on The Brady Bunch, but as I grew older, I loved literally every line she had on the show!

She was very quick-witted, professional, and dedicated to her TV family, and her church work. I learned that Ann did church charities for years.

Another article: (Credit USA Today)

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2014/06/01/ann-b-davis-alice-brady-bunch-dies/9847167/

Jack

Its real buddy... She fell and hit her head :(



I know it's true, you misunderstood what I was trying to say. I meant that threads like these should not be started without a verifiable link. When Vahan originally started the thread he was only going by what was posted on IMDb and we all know they're not always reliable. The point I'm trying to make is that he should've waited until he had a reliable news source before starting the thread. I'm guilty of the same thing and learned a lesson from it. I will no longer start any obit threads unless I have a link from a reputable source.

RIP Ann Davis

So sad. I didn't realize that she was that old! RIP dear Alice:(

Thanks for posting the photo of Alice...

So sad. It feels like a member of the family has died. R.I.P. Ann. You were the best part of "The Brady Bunch" in my opinion.

What happened to the proposed series with Bobby Brady?

I was watching the episode Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, just a couple of days ago.

So sad--I always thought my friend Jim Stingl's mom reminded me of Alice.

Very sad.

What happened to the proposed series with Bobby Brady?

I've never heard of this. Can you explain it, please... or link to the source?

I know it's true, you misunderstood what I was trying to say. I meant that threads like these should not be started without a verifiable link. When Vahan originally started the thread he was only going by what was posted on IMDb and we all know they're not always reliable.Ahhh ok... Im sorry I misunderstood.......

http://www.today.com/entertainment/barry-williams-remembers-ann-b-davis-wonderful-woman-great-friend-2D79745128

Barry Williams remembers Ann B. Davis: A 'wonderful woman, a great friend'
Randee Dawn TODAY contributor



"

As fans know, Ann B. Davis' Alice on "The Brady Bunch" wasn't just a maid; she was a teacher of big lessons. But it turns out the actress, who died Sunday, was also a role model to the young actors on the show — particularly a teenaged Barry Williams.

"When she came on our set she was already a big star, having won a couple of Emmys," recalled Williams, who played eldest son Greg Brady, on TODAY Monday. "So I knew even as a young teenager she was someone I wanted to pay attention to."

He got a memorable lesson one day when he laughed while watching her rehearse backstage. "She turned and stopped the rehearsal — I guess I was interrupting her rhythm — and said, 'Barry, comedy is not funny!' and I was crushed. I thought I'd disappointed her," he recalled. "Later I snuck over to her and I said, 'What did you mean by "comedy is not funny"' and she said, 'Oh, I was just kidding with you.' Which was her sense of humor."

The Brady clan of actors, Williams said, stayed in touch over the years, and he described Davis as a "big part of the family" and "a wonderful, wonderful woman, a great friend." But one thing he did want to clear up: While Davis was as bighearted as Alice, she was her own person.

"Most people think of her as a really wonderful cook, but she didn't even know how to make meatloaf!" he revealed.

Williams wasn't the only famous fan of Davis, of course — celebrities and former co-stars have been tweeting their thoughts since Sunday:

http://time.com/2809255/ann-b-davis-alice-appreciation/

Somehow Forming a Family: Why We Loved The Brady Bunch‘s Alice


Played by Ann B. Davis, who died over the weekend, Alice represented something that was becoming familiar in people's complicated lives if not on TV: the non-parent parent.

In the famous opening grid of The Brady Bunch‘s title sequence, the character who occupies the center square is not a parent or a child but Alice the housekeeper. (As a kid, I had a heavy diet of Hollywood Squares episodes and Brady Bunch reruns, and therefore forever had Alice and Paul Lynde weirdly conjoined in my mind.) Played by Ann B. Davis, who died after a fall on May 31 at age 88, Alice was the connecting tissue of the group that somehow formed a family.

As a kid watching the Bradys, maybe you identified with Jan or Bobby or another kid, maybe you had affection for Mike and Carol–but Alice was the one you loved. She was an employee, yes, but a friend and a confidante. She was the adult on the show who was most often allowed to be flat-out, broadly funny. Mike had to be patient and befuddled; Carol warm and wise. But Alice got to be smart, self-effacing, flustered, and straight-talking, and Davis played her with a comic arsenal of comic moves and gestures–that peppy voice, those talented eyebrows–and just a touch of relatable melancholy. (Oh, Sam the Butcher!)

The character was also a connection between TV eras. On the one hand, she was a throwback to the early days of TV sitcoms, when housekeeper and maid characters were more commonplace, from Hazel to The Jetsons’ Rosie. (While she had successors, like The Jeffersons‘ Florence, the wisecracking household worker isn’t so common anymore.) But on the other hand, she connected with a change that, in the early ’70s, was emerging in American families, in which figures other than two parents were central in kids’ lives.

Like a lot of childhood TV memories, The Brady Bunch is loved not so much for its artistry as for its emotional connections. The Brady family was big, it was blended, and it felt like there was room for everyone. Putting two families together on TV was unusual at the time, and it spoke to the number of kids who recognized divorce and remarriage from their own lives. Yes, Mike was a widower, and Carol’s status was never clarified–a compromise after Sherwood Schwartz wanted her to be a divorcée–but anyone watching knew what the show was really depicting. It turned something commonly depicted as tragedy into a triumph–a family coming together by choice.

And Alice–an employee, after all–was there by choice more than anyone. Nothing was making her stay, and yet she did. An early episode (see video, above), “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” addressed this directly, as Alice almost left (concocting a story about a “sick aunt”) because she worried the kids didn’t need her anymore. In typical Brady style, this led to hijinks–the whole family undertaking “Operation Alice” to convince her that she was needed–but really the necessity was plain in sight. The Brady house was an operation with a lot of moving parts.

Most of us watching The Bradys didn’t have full-time household help whipping up pork chops and applesauce. But we were, more and more, familiar with the parent-plus model of child-rearing: extended family, or paid caregivers, or family friends who occupied our lives and filled the gaps left by family breakups or busy work schedules.

For some of us, Alice reflected the accessory parents we had in our own lives. For others, she was one of those accessory parents–a familiar presence on the TV in an empty house, dishing out one-liners and companionship. We loved her because she made us laugh, and because she told us something we already knew: that you didn’t have to be blood to be family, you didn’t have to be related to relate. RIP, Ann B. Davis.

I was shocked to hear that Ann B. Davis died. Rest in peace. 88 years is a great life. You know I liked her on the Brady Bunch. She never was annoying or bratty on the show.


Btw, maybe somebody could help me with this? Yesterday I was watching ME-TV and they had a brief segment called "Barry Williams remembers Ann B. Davis." It was only a minute or 2 long. I thought to myself that they usually do that type of thing when someone dies although by yesterday afternoon, was it known that she died? If not, its a quite a coincidence, that segment aired and she died at the same time.

Susan Olsen said she knew early on about Ann's passing but didn't want to make any statement before it was officially announced to the public. Maybe Barry found out ahead of time, also.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/06/02/ann-b-davis-as-alice-always-there-for-the-bradys-and-for-a-lot-of-other-kids-too/

It was the “great unspoken truth” of “The Brady Bunch” that Carol Brady couldn’t handle being mom to all those kids, says Hank Stuever. So it was Alice who became the successor to June Cleaver. "Whether or not she believed the material was up to her standards, she made Alice’s (http://time.com/2809255/ann-b-davis-alice-appreciation/) wisecracks and goofy physicality seem perfectly natural,” Stuever writes. "Robert Reed, who played father Mike Brady, went to his grave still grumbling about the insipidness of the show; Davis seemed to exult in it.” PLUS: 12 things you didn’t know about Davis (http://variety.com/2014/tv/news/ann-b-davis-12-things-you-dont-know-about-the-brady-bunch-star-1201204059/), and watch Alice's best moments (http://www.people.com/article/brady-bunch-alice-ann-b-davis-best-moments?).
Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/tv-tattle#C6b8jbgWpUl7gDBq.99

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/06/02/ann-b-davis-as-alice-always-there-for-the-bradys-and-for-a-lot-of-other-kids-too/

Demographically, most American TV watchers have only ever known “The Brady Bunch” in syndication – a phenomenally successful rerun that reruns even now, 40 years after the show was canceled at the end of its fifth season. Beneath its perpetual ability to keep us aghast at the fashion, décor, lingo and the most corny and tentative notions of counterculture in the 1970s, “The Brady Bunch” remains a permanent touchstone. No one will ever mistake it for Ibsen, but disdainful critics have learned that it meant something to some of us.

Hearing about the death on Sunday of 88-year-old actress Ann B. Davis, who is remembered best for playing the fictional Brady family’s live-in housekeeper, Alice Nelson, I immediately and wistfully thought of what it felt like, in grade school and middle school, to come home every afternoon to an empty house.

It wasn’t a terrible thing; these aren’t bad memories, but Alice is certainly in them. Like “The Brady Bunch,” being a so-called latchkey kid was a byproduct of the ’70s. Some of us had moms who were among the first American women to boldly attempt the juggling act of earning a paycheck and running a household. Some of us had divorced parents, or soon would. Some of us knew it was our job to fend for ourselves for a couple hours between 3:30 and 5:30 each day. None of us had a live-in housekeeper.

But we were not entirely alone when we had reruns. As early as the mid-’70s, when Paramount Television first put the show into weekday syndication, “The Brady Bunch” felt immediately and almost profoundly nostalgic.

No matter how quiet and empty the house was when you got home, you could turn on the TV just as the theme song began (“Here’s the story…”) and Alice was there, in the center of that joyful, blended-family “Brady Bunch” grid. She was in the kitchen getting dinner ready. She offered cookies and milk and sound advice.

She was, I suppose, whatever June Cleaver had been to the previous generation. The years went by, the 117 “Brady Bunch” episodes kept rerunning (the Grand Canyon trip, the Hawaii trip; Davy Jones dropping by, Joe Namath dropping by; Jan buying a wig, Peter’s voice cracking) and Alice kept filling some need for nurture. The entire premise of the show seemed to acknowledge, at least in subtext, that Alice was filling the need that Carol Brady (Florence Henderson) could not fill. It’s the great unspoken truth of “The Brady Bunch,” particularly in retrospect: Ann B. Davis was the better mother.

But television could never let on about that. The jokes they wrote for Alice had an outdated and intentionally broad and hammy quality to them, as if her prior gigs had been cleaning hotel rooms in the Catskills. Davis was already a two-time Emmy winning comic actress (as Schultzy, the Gal Friday character on NBC’s “The Bob Cummings Show” in the 1950s) when she took the “Brady” gig. Whether or not she believed the material was up to her standards, she made Alice’s wisecracks and goofy physicality seem perfectly natural. Robert Reed, who played father Mike Brady, went to his grave still grumbling about the insipidness of the show; Davis seemed to exult in it.

Viewers, especially children, were meant to understand that Alice was “old,” or was at least feeling the first pangs of decline. (In fact, Davis was in her 40s during “The Brady Bunch’s” run.) Dancing the hula or unwisely having a go on a trampoline, Alice seemed prone to lower-back strain and assorted pratfalls which caused her employers and their children to squeal with laughter at her expense – oh, Alice.

Always the Gal Friday, she made frequent, self-deprecating jokes about her spinsterhood and her futile attempts to get Sam the Butcher, her only suitor, to come around to the idea of commitment. When Hollywood began making big-budget “Brady” movies in the 1990s, which were faithfully detailed and lightly subverted parodies, I remember being so let down by their idea of Alice (played by Henriette Mantel) as a secret freak and sexual libertine. It was one of the few times I’ve ever been offended on behalf of a fictional character, as if my – our – Alice had been fundamentally misunderstood.

In the gauzy bliss of Bradydom, where the bathroom was only ever used for staring at the mirror in a spell of pubescent unease, we rarely, if ever, saw Alice in the act of completing the household’s hardest chores, such as scrubbing a toilet and bathtub shared by six children. People look at “The Brady Bunch” now and bring too many questions to it, starting with: Why did the Bradys need a full-time, live-in housekeeper? Why did Mike Brady, the architect paterfamilias, design the house with just one bathroom for the kids? If they loved her like family, why did they make Alice wear a uniform? Too many questions and too many cheap jokes to be made until, finally, one day, “The Brady Bunch” won’t be on anymore.

I hardly questioned it as a child. I had everything a kid could ever want and still found myself watching “The Brady Bunch” from a place of envy.

I envied the activity, the noise, the laughter, the good cheer, the sunshine, the talent shows, the vacations. I envied the brothers, the sisters, the cohesion, the Alice-ness of it all. I envied it and on some level I feared it. Their lives were too clean, too ordered, too right. “If there’s anything I can’t stand, it’s a perfect kid,” Alice once said, piercing that veneer, celebrating faults and spats and mistakes. Latchkey kids were especially attuned to “The Brady Bunch’s” nonsense, but we sensed the safety in it.

So maybe you didn’t come into the kitchen through a sliding glass door from a backyard covered in Astroturf.

So you most likely didn’t have five siblings.

So they were Chips Ahoy cookies, not homemade.

So no one had remembered to buy milk.

So Alice was imaginary.

What a wonderful person to have around anyhow, if only on TV, just in case we felt alone.

RIP Ann B. Davis. A LOT of kids grew up on The Brady Bunch and you will be missed.

Alice was great. My favorite episode of The Brady Bunch was the one at the amusement park. Everyone running through the park to get dad his plans was fun to watch. Alice even ran and I thought she did it well considering she was old. She was 47 at the time. I am now older than Alice at that time and not sure I could run the park anymore. Thanks Anne B. for the memories. Also, ME-TV please run some episodes of The Bob Cummings Show.

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/msnbc-confuses-its-famous-housekeepers-while-reporting-ann-b-davis-death_b227045

“Our apologies,” said host Chris Jansing, after showing a picture of Henriette Mantel, who played Alice in the “Brady” movie.
Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/tv-tattle#0jrkfWBbBZtiUhie.99

Alice even ran and I thought she did it well considering she was old. She was 47 at the time.

47 isn't old. :lol:

A great tribute (https://www.yahoo.com/movies/the-brady-bunch-movies-alice-pays-tribute-to-ann-b-87626972182.html) to the original Alice, from the 1990's Alice (related to MSNBC sharing Henriette Mantel's picture (http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/msnbc-confuses-its-famous-housekeepers-while-reporting-ann-b-davis-death_b227045) when announcing Ann B. Davis' passing).

*************

I woke up this morning to several emails, one of which said, “My heart skipped a beat when MSNBC put your picture up. Are you alive?” According to MSNBC and Chris Jansing, I might be dead: When she reported the sad death of Ann B. Davis, who so famously played the loyal maid Alice on The Brady Bunch, they put up my picture — me in the center square from when I played Alice in 1995’s The Brady Bunch Movie and its 1996 sequel, sporting Davis’ iconic updo and blue smock. Good God, Chris, I thought upon learning this. Have you no respect for Brady fans all over the world? You should have such a following. Get a grip, sister! We have lost a legend!

It was the summer of 1994 when I met Alice: Paramount Studios, Hollywood, a big day on the Brady Movie set. Somehow director Betty Thomas, our fearless leader, had gotten Ann B. Davis to appear in the film. My scene wasn’t with her, but I was psyched to meet the iconic maid who I had the honor of portraying. I had watched every scene she was in over and over to prepare for the role. I tried to emulate her extremely positive and spiritual attitude on the inside. Then I learned to imitate her walk and delivery – along with putting my hands in my apron pockets, making a big smile, going up on my heels and saying, “Pork chops and apple sauce.” I felt like I knew her, but most of all I thought I knew how she felt about things. And it was fun.

Jennifer Elise Cox, who played my Jan Brady (and was in the scene with Ann B.), had left me a note: “Make sure you find me, I can’t wait till we meet her, so awesome.” I was a tad nervous. Geez, I was a late-to-the-party Brady fan, but thanks to my slightly obsessive preparations, I knew every line she had ever spoken in the series.

I walked on the set in my blue uniform, white apron, proper dorky curls for bangs, hair up in a bun, my clean maid shoes tied and pretty and there she was. Alice herself. The real thing. The person who the die-hard Brady fans were ready to judge me against for the rest of my life.

She just looked at me and said, “Ok, this is eerie, really really eerie.” We both laughed and thankfully she said, “Let’s go over to that craft service table and talk for real.”

So we did, for a half-hour I will never forget. She said how lucky she felt that she could wear a uniform every day and all the others had to go through elaborate costuming. Boy did I agree. We discussed how neither one of us was a cook, neither one of us had kids, neither had a butcher boyfriend named Sam and let’s face it, who has housekeepers that look like us?

But then she told me of how over the years thousands of people had told her what she meant to them. She said it always touched her heart to know that she might have brought up kids all over the country in her own way. She beamed at the thought of kids learning from her. I prayed I could do the character of Alice justice and with it, keep the deep sense of humor we had in common.

Before it was time for my scene and she was on her way, I had to ask her one question that I felt was an underlying premise in the series and yet was never addressed directly. “So, Jan was your favorite, right?” She just laughed with that twinkle in her eye, went up on her heels and said, “I’ll never tell.” But I knew, because after all, we were both Alice.

Susan Olson hosts a radio show in LA - here is the link to the broadcast just after Ann's passing.

http://www.latalkradio.com/Players/Twochicks.shtml?date=June+2%2C+2014&file=060214

Rest in peace.

I was shocked to hear that Ann B. Davis died. Rest in peace. 88 years is a great life. You know I liked her on the Brady Bunch. She never was annoying or bratty on the show.

Btw, maybe somebody could help me with this? Yesterday I was watching ME-TV and they had a brief segment called "Barry Williams remembers Ann B. Davis." It was only a minute or 2 long. I thought to myself that they usually do that type of thing when someone dies although by yesterday afternoon, was it known that she died? If not, its a quite a coincidence, that segment aired and she died at the same time.

I saw this same segment on Sunday afternoon and thought the same thing, then I remembered that I was actually watching a recording of Car 54, which I'd recorded Sunday morning at 2:30 AM, when Ann B. Davis was still alive, so it had nothing to do with her passing. It was just a coincidence.

I've never heard of this. Can you explain it, please... or link to the source?
I don't have a link or source, I read it somewhere that the Bobby character was to have his own show about raising his kids. It was suppose to have aired last season unless it just never left the talking stage.

Link (http://www.tmz.com/2014/06/01/ann-b-davis-dead-alice-from-the-brady-bunch-dies-at-age-88/#ixzz33Qc4MfZQ)

TV legend Ann B. Davis who played Alice on "The Brady Bunch" has died ... TMZ has learned.

According to the couple she lived with ... Ann fell in her bathroom early this morning and hit her head causing grave damage. We're told she never regained consciousness.

Sometimes, older people in their 80's and above tend to get a little unsteady on their feet. Perhaps she had a dizzy spell, lost her balance and took a fall. May she rest in peace.

All of us are here on borrowed time, life is fragile, no one knows when their last day will be. Today is a gift, that's why it's called the present. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. Live happy and be thankful for every healthy day.

Maureen McCormick and the son of the show's creator were among those mourning Ann B. Davis

Link (http://articles.mcall.com/2014-06-14/news/mc-alice-brady-bunch-funeral-20140614_1_maureen-mccormick-davis-ann-b)

Ann B. Davis won over generations of TV viewers as Alice Nelson, the fun-loving, quick-witted housekeeper in the hit 1970s-era comedy "The Brady Bunch."

Her spunky personality and Hollywood success laced eulogies at her private funeral Friday morning at her home parish, St. Helena's Episcopal Church in Boerne, Texas.

Yet, the gathering focused memories on what the speakers called Davis' exemplary devotion to her faith, especially her decision in mid-career to leave Tinseltown and join an Episcopal community in Denver.

Davis, who died June 1 after suffering a fall at her home in San Antonio, was 88.

"The media had a field day" recalling her acting career, said William Frey, 84, a close friend and retired Episcopal bishop, during the homily. "But most of them have missed out on the one thing that has driven her for the last 40 years, and that is her faith."

The audience of nearly 200 people in the parish's historic sanctuary in Boerne included Davis' twin sister, Harriet, and Maureen McCormick, who played Marcia on "The Brady Bunch."

Davis moved with Frey and his wife to San Antonio in 1996. She regularly sang in the choir and rarely missed Bible studies or the church's morning worship service on Wednesdays.

She grew up in Erie and graduated with a theater degree from the University of Michigan. TV producer and writer Lloyd Schwartz told Friday's gathering that his father, Sherwood Schwartz, created "The Brady Bunch" and didn't at first realize how great Davis would be on the set, or how caring a family friend she'd be.

"Dad didn't create 'Alice.' She was Ann B's own creation," he said. "He just wanted a funny housekeeper. But he got a whole lot more. America got a whole lot more. I got a lot more. I got a lifetime friend."

Schwartz led the audience in a standing ovation for Davis.

Frey said a new pastor at her Episcopal church in Hollywood expanded her faith, recalling how she said she had been "living in a palace all my life but confined to one room and suddenly I have the keys to all the other rooms.

"She started paying attention to the Bible and all the glories contained there," Frey said.

In 1976, she visited Frey in Denver, where he and his family lived in a three-story downtown residence. Up to 18 people lived there, sharing household duties but linked by their Christian fervor. She ended up moving in, going from her Hollywood home to a room with two other single women.

She accompanied Frey for a few years on his visitations to do ministry in hospitals and other settings, including churches, where members stopped her for autographs. Her rule was she'd only sign her name on church bulletins.

"If people wanted to show the autograph off, they had to admit they'd been to church," he said, evoking laughter.

The Rev. Paul Frey, the retired bishop's son, also recalled Davis' penchant for volunteering at a homeless center in Denver. She asked him for a tour to see which job she could do.

"Afterward, she said, 'I want a backstage job. I want to do laundry,' " said Paul Frey, an Episcopal priest in Laredo, Texas. "I told her that meant cleaning mostly really nasty socks. These guys have been wearing socks for three or four weeks. She said, 'It's OK,' and did it faithfully for more than six years."