I was deeply saddened and shocked to hear Dixie Carter died today. She was only 70.

I enjoyed her so much on “Designing Women,” where she played the smart, feisty, Southern business and gentlewoman Julia Sugarbaker. (And was married to the dreamy Hal Holbrook besides.) Maybe I was influenced too much by having lived in Atlanta for three years, a city I found completely charming, wonderfully cosmopolitan, and so genteel. It dovetailed with my predominantly Southern-flavored upbringing in Oklahoma.

At any rate, I loved Dixie Carter and the character she played. There’s no word yet as to how she died, but having just turned 67 myself, I’m getting very age conscious. Dixie Carter was much too young to die.

R.I.P. Dixie Carter. You were the woman I always dreamed of being.