- September 23, 1998 I think Mary is best known for a character on one of my all time favorite sit-coms, Newhart. The show ran for 8 years and she played Bob's wife, Joanna. I always thought she was beautiful and sophisticated. Born in St. Louis, Frann was a child model and did live television commercials for a local station while she was in high school. She studied drama at Northwestern University and worked as weather reporter for the NBC affiliate in St. Louis. She also starred in the ABC series "Kings Crossing" and in the Jackie Collins miniseries "Lucky Chances" on NBC, and played Amanda Peters for four years on NBC's "Days of Our Lives." Frann also was active in charities, and the night before she died she was working with homeless women at the Los Angeles Mission, where she served on a celebrity volunteer committee. For weeks after her death, tabloids speculated that drug use had somehow been involved in her unexpected death but autopsy results determined that Frann was suffering from an existing but undiagnosed condition called "lipomatosis with fibrosis," which is a scarring of the heart muscle tissue. "Mary was not a star on a pedestal," says close friend and CAC member Meredith MacRae (Petticoat Junction), "She really listened to these troubled women and would candidly share her own struggles. She recruited dentists for them, threw them baby showers - and never with a reporter or camera crew to witness it. She truly gave of herself, and we honor her by making sure her work continues." Meredith sang The Wind Beneath My Wings at Mary's funeral. Mary also served on the Board of Trustees for the Starlight Foundation, an organization which dedicates itself to making a difference in the life of a sick child. In a 1986 interview, Frann said there was much of her own personality in Joanna Loudon. "I have a lot of that `open to anything' quality," she said. "And as the seasons evolve, I've tried to get her to come back with more witty responses because that's how my mind works." Mary was buried in Holy Cross Cemetary in Culver City, California. All images on this page captured from "Newhart" and scanned in by Darrianne....the quality isn't the greatest but the photos are original.