Valerie Mahaffey, Of Northern Exposure And Young Sheldon, Dead At 71

Valerie Mahaffey, a veteran actress whose myriad TV roles included Northern Exposure (for which she won an Emmy), Desperate Housewives and Young Sheldon, died on Friday after a battle with cancer. She was 71.

"I have lost the love of my life, and America has lost one of its most endearing actresses," her husband, actor Joseph Kell, told Variety. "She will be missed."

Mahaffey's first ongoing TV role was as Ashley Bennett in the NBC soap The Doctors, for which she earned a Daytime Emmy nomination in 1980. She went on to appear in the comedy miniseries Fresno in 1986, had one-offs on series such as Newhart, Cheers, Seinfeld and Quantum Leap, and then played senator's daughter Caitlyn Van Horne in the Washington, D.C.-set 1992 sitcom The Powers That Be.

On Northern Exposure, she appeared in multiple episodes as hypochondriac Eve, earning her first Emmy win (in the Supporting Actress category).

Mahaffey finished out the 1990s with roles on Wings, The Client and ER, kept busy in the aughts with appearances on The West Wing, Frasier, CSI and Private Practice and many other shows, and then had an arc on United States of Tara.

In Season 3 of Desperate Housewives she played Orson Hodge's first wife Alma, after which she played Emma's mom on Glee, guested on Hart of Dixie, and had a run on Devious Maids.

Mahaffey's more recent TV roles includes The Man in the High Castle, Young Sheldon (as English teacher Victoria MacElroy), Big Sky, Dead to Me and Echo 3.

Young Sheldon star Iain Armitage posted a tribute to Mahaffey on Instagram: "I'm not sure if she enjoyed Sheldon as a student, but I sure did enjoy sharing time onscreen and off with Ms. Valerie... Thank you for the wonderful memories. Thinking of your family and friends today and sending them love."