Fans of The Golden Girls have been remembering Rue McClanahan this week on the tenth anniversary of her passing in 2010. A veteran actress with dozens of credits, McClanahan is particularly well-known for her fan favorite role as Blanche Devereaux on The Golden Girls, a role for which she won an Outstanding Lead Actress Emmy Award. Sadly, McClanahan died after suffering from a brain hemorrhage at the age of 76, and fans of the television legend continue to honor her legacy.

"Remembering Rue McClanahan who passed away on this date in 2010. She really was the absolute perfect fit to play Blanche Devereaux!" posts one Golden Girl fan account on Twitter. Many other messages express similar admiration for McClanahan in the classic role as well as love for McClanahan as a person, as another fan even refers to her as a goddess. People have been posting some of their favorite Blanche moments from The Golden Girls as well, such as the time she told reporters to only ever put her name in print as, "Blanche Devereaux, comma, 39."

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Following the outpouring of fan tributes posted online, a famous relative of McClanahan also took to social media to honor the Golden Girls star. Actress Amelia Kinkade, known for leading the Night of the Demons horror movie series, is the real-life niece of McClanahan. In fact, Kinkade once shared the screen with McClanahan when she guest starred on an episode of The Golden Girls. Remembering her late aunt, Kinkade posted a photo of the two together on Facebook, along with a touching message.

"Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of my Aunt Rue's death," Kinkade says in the post. "I had the honor of holding my mother and Rue's best friend's hand, and leading them in prayer over Rue who was in a coma in the hospital. Rue was ever so slightly aware of us, until I finished the prayer to usher her through the gates of Heaven. Then she relaxed. Here she'd taken me to dinner to celebrate the publication of my first book. I know so many of you loved her too, so you'd understand my sadness. Floods of tears."

In addition to starring on The Golden Girls for many years, McClanahan would reprise the role of Blanche for the short-lived spin-off series The Golden Palace. Also featuring Betty White and Estelle Getty, the spin-off ran for a total of 24 episodes on CBS in the early '90s. Some of McClanahan's other famous roles include playing Vivian Harmon on Maude, Aunt Fran Crowley on Mama's Family, and as Matilda Joslyn Gage in the TV movie The Dreamer of Oz. She also did voice work for animated shows like King of the Hill and Spider-Man: The Animated Series.

McClanahan is still clearly very much missed by her fans, proving that her legacy is just as strong as ever a full decade past her death. As such an important part of one of the most beloved television shows of all time, it appears that this love for the late actress will continue to endure forever. You can watch her in The Golden Girls streaming on Hulu, and you can look at some of the fan tributes on Twitter posted for McClanahan this week below.

Topics: Golden Girls

Jeremy Dick at TVweb
Jeremy Dick