Golden Girls Star Rue McClanahan Dies at 76 Rue McClanahan Walter McBride/Retna * Facebook * Twitter * Yahoo Buzz * E-mail Golden Girl Rue McClanahan, 76, has died. "She passed away at 1 a.m. this morning," her manager, Barbara Lawrence, tells PEOPLE. She had a massive stroke." McClanahan, who played Blanche Deveraux on the still-popular '80s sitcom Golden Girls, had suffered a minor stroke earlier this year while recovering from bypass surgery. Lawrence added that at the time of her death Thursday, McClanahan “had her family with her. She went in peace.”