Mary Grace Canfield, best remembered as Ralph Monroe of hit TV series "Green Acres," passed away from lung cancer on Saturday in a Santa Barbara hospice after a long, hard battle with the illness. She was 89.
The cause of Mary Grace Canfield's death was lung cancer, her daughter Phoebe Alexiades said.
On "Green Acres," Mary Grace Canfield was Ralph Monroe, who, with her brother Alf, was perennially working on the bedroom of a city slicker couple (Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor) at their newly acquired farm near Hooterville. She was a down-home gal in bib overalls and a white painter's cap worn backward, a funny, plain-spoken woman doing "man's work" before feminism made the term quaint.
The show ran from 1965 to 1971. Looking back at it, Mary Grace Canfield had mixed feelings.
"To be remembered for Ralph kind of upsets me — only in the sense that it was so easy and undemanding," she said in a 2006 interview with the Bangor Daily News in Maine, where she lived for many years. "It's being known for something easy to do instead of something you worked hard to achieve."
Mary Grace Canfield also appeared on TV in "Bewitched," "General Hospital," "The Love Boat" and other shows. In a memorable 1963 episode of "The Andy Griffith Show," she was Gomer Pyle's blind date; the two socially awkward, lovable bumpkins defied everyone's expectations and had a wonderful time, jitterbugging.
Born in Rochester, N.Y., on Sept. 3, 1924, Canfield attended an acting school run by famed teacher Jason Deeter in Rose Valley, Pa.
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