A Tremendous Loss For Anyone That Loves Y&R (822)

This is truly difficult for me...ever since I saw the first tweet back on April 12th that she was not feeling well I was sure to keep an eye on Twitter every day.  Seeing the tweet with the horrible news last night was a very powerful blow.  Her incredible body of work will be her legacy to all her fans and of course she as a person, mother, grandmother and friend will be the legacy she will leave to all that knew her. 

She was born on October 25, 1928 - she appeared in a handful of films and quite a few television shows before she joined "The Young and the Restless" in late 1973.  She had a regular role as Grace Douglas on the series "Bracken's World" from 1969 to 1970.  She brought her Y&R character, Katherine, into two episodes of "The Bold and the Beautiful" in 2005.  Below is an incomplete list of her television credits:

"The Adventures of Kit Carson"
"Mr. District Attorney"
"The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse"
"Playhouse 90"
"The Ford Television Theatre"
"The George Sanders Mystery Theater"
"Jane Wyman Presents the Fireside Theatre"
"The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen"
"The Twilight Zone"
"Rawhide"
"The Untouchables"
"Bonanza"
"Gunsmoke"
"The Virginian"
"77 Sunset Strip"
"Dr. Kildare"
"Wagon Train"
"The Man from U.N.C.L.E."
"Perry Mason"
"Ben Casey"
"The Big Valley"
"Death Valley Days"
"Hawaii Five-O"
"Cannon"
"Mannix"
"Ironside"
"McCloud"
"Emergency!"
"L.A. Law"
"Family Feud"
"Vicki!"
"The Nanny"
"Diagnosis Murder"
"Touched by an Angel"
"SoapTalk"
"Guiding Light"
"The Oprah Winfrey Show"

On "The Young and the Restless" she played Katherine Chancellor, a woman with a drinking problem, several husbands, lots of money and plenty of other conflicts.  Her main enemy was Jill Abbott (played by Jess Walton since 1987).  Over the years Katherine overcame alcoholism, murder attempts, kidnappings, cat fights, the loss of loved ones, the return of loved ones and everything that made it a true soap opera life.  From 1989-1990 she played Katherine's lookalike Marge Cotrooke, who began as a villain but became a friend.  Marge returned briefly in 2008 & 2009.  

Katherine Chancellor ended her run on the show as a lady that was dear to all those she touched.  Again writing this post is very hard for me.  Jeanne Cooper was exactly the same age as my own grandmother is right now and our relationship is very very poor.  I suppose as sad as it sounds, watching this lady on television gave me a glimpse as to what it might be like to have a positive senior female role model. 

With the deepest of saddness...

In Memoriam Remembers:
Jeanne Cooper      

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