I don't know what it was taken but it's pretty shocking if you only remember her as Ruth Martin (as I did.)I had heard she was real sick but then the person said, "I heard it on Wikipedia" and i don't beleive too much on what i read on that. I always hoped Maryh would come reprise her role on the final episodes with Joe to close out the show, maybe just looking through their old photo albums in bed like they did when she came back for the 30th anniversary. but i guess that's the last we will see of her. No offence to Lee Merriweather but she was never really Ruth Martin. She did OK but she wasn't the Ruth we all knew who married Joe, adopted Tad and had a late in life baby Jake. just look at the scenes from the 25th anniversary when Ruth was thinking back on her old life before the tornado that destroyed the martin home. It was powerful because you really could feel the sadness she was feeling.

http://www.thepinevalleyexposer.com/2011/05/todays-amc-birthdays_23.html

Edited June 29, 201114 yr by BKuzak

Yes, here is the accompanying article:

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/072008/07192008/395566

I couldn't get past the first page - I think knowing she lost so many of her belongings upset me almost as much as her condition. I'm glad she at least has her daughter to care for her, and that she remembers her AMC experience fondly.

OH God! On the main page, all I could see was ex-Ruth Martin: Mary Fickett and I immediately clicked on it thinking it was going to say she's passed. So glad she hasn't but from the looks of that picture, she's not long for this world, unfortunately.

As for the article, it's nice they did it and all, but they should have just said that McDonnell, Fickett, and Lucci were original cast members. We all know that SuLu was not in the very first episode of AMC.

That picture's from three years ago, so I'd say she's doing better than it seems.

God, I loved Mary Fickett. I always thought it was a shame the way they somewhat marginalized her starting in the mid-80s. I've said it before, but if MEK hadn't exploded onto the scene, I wonder if Mary and Ray would've lasted all of those years. This may have been posted before, but here's a short clip from the first daytime Emmys of Barbara Walters interviewing her, Mary Stuart and Dennis James.

thanks for the clip, it shows the way Daytime emmy's should have stayed. Very quiet, talking to the actors/actresses. Now all the crap they put on this year. they whized by the actual emmy's (could they have said the names any faster!) to do all this other stuff that had nothing much to do with daytime. I didn't like it at all, except to see who won. of course next year at this time AMC and OLTL will be history so i think the emmy's won't be long for this world either.

Edited June 30, 201114 yr by BKuzak

wow, Dennis James.. I remember when he was the host of the nighttime Price Is Right and of course his telethon that ran for decades. He had such a great speaking voice.