Mabel King died November 9 in Woodland Hills, California. She was 66.
Movie fans will remember King for her turn as Steve Martin's mother in 1979's The Jerk and for her life force of a performance in the 1978 musical, The Wiz, where she played the Wicked Witch of the West (name of Evillene).
But it is in the forever world of TV reruns where King arguably leaves her biggest mark. In the 1976-79 ABC sitcom, she played the no-nonsense life advisor to a trio of teen boys, son Roger (Ernest Thomas), and his friends Dwayne (Haywood Nelson) and Rerun (Fred Berry).
Poor health plagued King for years--she worked little following the What's Happening!! run. More recent credits included a bit in the 1988 Bill Murray comedy, Scrooged.
Diabetes cost King both her legs; a stroke damaged her left hand; a fall from a wheelchair knocked out her upper teeth. She lived at Motion Picture & Television Hospital in Woodland Hills for nine years, leaving the residence just this past August.
"Sure enough, I've been through a lot," King told the Los Angeles Times in 1995, "but so what? I thank God for my life."