TV mother of The Brady Bunch, Florence Henderson, dies at 82

The iconic mother of the television program The Brady Bunch, Florence Henderson, has died at the age of 82 on 24 November 2016. Her manager, Kayla Pressman, said she suffered heart failure.

The Brady Bunch was an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz and aired from 1969-1974. It was about a blended family of six children: the architect father Mike Brady (played by actor Robert Reed) had three sons and married Carol Martin (played by actor Florence Henderson) who had three daughters. Often the person in the middle was housekeeper Alice (played by actor Ann B Davis).

The three Brady boys were Greg (Barry Williams), Peter (Christopher Knight), and Bobby (Mike Lookinland). Carol’s three girls were Marcia (Maureen McCormick), Jan (Eve Plumb), and Cindy (Susan Olsen). They all became The Brady Bunch.

They lived in a Los Angeles suburb, and the episoded revolved around school, arguments, gender wars, falling in love and falling out of love, and other teenage angst issues.

When the television series finished, there were several specials and films from 1976-2002.

Florence Henderson (1934-2016) was an actor in other movies, but best remembered as the mother, Carol Brady, in The Brady Bunch. She was the ‘ever-smiling’ wife, raising six children with the help of Alice the housekeeper, although Mike Brady was portrayed as an actively involved father – he worked at home from his architect office.

Henderson was also the first woman to host The Tonight Show when Johnny Carson took his holiday. She had her own cooking show and made guest appearances on other television shows, such as The Love Boat, Ally McBeal, and The King of Queens.

My family loved this show because we were also six children, with our youngest sister – just like in The Brady Bunch – called Cindy. With the show’s six children, two parents, a housekeeper, dogs and pets, boyfriends and girlfriends, neighbours and relatives, the butcher, the tradesmen, and a cast of other characters, the Brady household was a hectic place – and always entertaining.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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