Ronnie Claire Edwards

Ronnie Claire Edwards (February 9, 1933 – June 14, 2016) was an American actress born and raised in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She began her professional acting career in 1963 and worked across stage, film, and television for more than four decades before retiring from the profession.

Edwards established her stage credentials on Broadway between 1971 and 1978, appearing in three productions: Porch, The Lincoln Mask, and The Trial of the Catonsville Nine. Her theatrical work extended beyond Broadway to include a one-woman show titled The Knife Thrower's Assistant: Memoirs of a Human Target, which she performed and took to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1993.

On television, Edwards became most widely recognized for her recurring role as Corabeth Walton Godsey, the strong-willed wife of storekeeper Ike Godsey, played by Joe Conley, on the CBS series The Waltons, created by Earl Hamner, Jr. She later returned to work with Hamner on his 1983 NBC series Boone, in which she played Aunt Dolly; the series was cancelled after ten episodes. In 1985, she co-starred opposite Geena Davis in the NBC series Sara. Among her other television appearances, Edwards played Ione Frazier, the mother of Charlene, in two episodes of CBS's Designing Women, and appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Thine Own Self." She also made a brief appearance on PBS's Antiques Roadshow in 2008, filmed in Dallas, Texas, when she brought in a chair previously owned by P.T. Barnum for appraisal. A role in the HBO series 12 Miles of Bad Road went unaired when the network chose not to broadcast the series in 2008, after which Edwards retired from acting.

Her film work included The Dead Pool (1988) and the 1999 television remake of Inherit the Wind. Edwards also co-wrote a musical play, Idols of the King, conceived as a tribute to Elvis Presley's career, legacy, and devoted fans.

Beyond performing, Edwards was a published author. In 2000, Hawk Publishing Group released The Knife Thrower's Assistant: Memoirs of a Human Target, and she published additional memoirs in 2012. In her personal life, she sold her Los Angeles mansion to Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea in 2008 and subsequently made her home in a restored 1911 Catholic church on Swiss Avenue in Dallas, Texas. Edwards died in her sleep on June 14, 2016, at the age of 83, from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.