Actress Dixie Carter passed away on Saturday due to complications from endometrial cancer. She was 70. Carter is perhaps best-known for her straight-talking, no-nonsense Designing Women character Julia Sugarbaker.

Carter’s husband Hal Holbrook (Into the Wild) has asked for privacy during this “family tragedy,” saying “this has been a terrible blow.” During her long television career, Dixie also enjoyed recurring roles on Diff’rent Strokes and Family Law. She was more recently enjoyed by TV watchers as Gloria Hodge, the mother-in-law from hell on ABC’s Desperate Housewives.

Annie Potts, Carter’s former Designing Women co-star, released a statement concerning the death of her friend: “Dixie Carter was a goddess. Beautiful and brainy, smart and funny, prim and sexy, wickedly talented and divinely sweet.” Potts called Dixie “the kind of friend that is absolutely irreplaceable.”

Many of Carter’s fans will feel the same way. Her cool, charismatic delivery helped her stand out as a strong-willed female character on every series where she appeared. As Potts said, Dixie’s is “a loss beyond measure.” Though best-known for her television work, Dixie Carter was also an accomplished Broadway actress and singer.