Barbara Eden is mourning the loss of her beloved pal Loni Anderson.
The actress, who starred in “WKRP in Cincinnati,” died on Aug. 3 at a Los Angeles hospital following a prolonged illness. She was 79.
“I feel very lonely now that she’s not here,” the “I Dream of Jeannie” star admitted to Fox News Digital. “I miss her – I really miss her. I miss everything about Loni. She was just a very special, kind, sweet, good mother. You can’t say anything bad about her.”
LONI ANDERSON, ‘WKRP IN CINCINNATI’ STAR, DEAD AT 79
The two women first met in 1981. At the time, they were filming a Bob Hope special alongside “Dynasty” star Linda Evans.
“He was doing a big deal about the blondes in Hollywood,” Eden chuckled. “They had put the costumes out for us in different rooms, of course. They’d given me white hosiery for a nurse costume. I looked at them and I thought, ‘Oh my God, how ugly.’ But I just put them on.”
“I walked out of the hallway, and there was Loni. She looked at me and said, ‘You can’t wear those!’” the 93-year-old laughed. “’You’ve got to tell them, go tell them. You’re going to change them.’ I didn’t even know her then. But we had such a good laugh later about it. And I did go and say, ‘I’ll have the skin-colored hosiery, not white!’ I think she was just really what my mother would call ‘a good egg.’”
“She was a friend,” said Eden. “She saw something she didn’t like and spoke up right then and there.”
The women became fast friends.
“Barbara probably knew her better than most – they were really good friends,” publicist Harlan Boll told Fox News Digital. “When I produced Barbara’s tribute, Loni was one of my speakers.”
Eden said she admired Anderson’s talent and dedication to motherhood.
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“She is still remembered for being a beautiful, kind, just wonderful human being,” said Eden. “I’m so happy that I got to know her and that we were friends. She was just everything fun. You wouldn’t think a glamour girl like Loni would be fun. But she was fun and funny. And she was also a really good mother. Her daughter is a school principal, and her son was just adorable. I’ve met him many times. She just did a good job with everything.”
Morgan Fairchild shared a similar sentiment.
WATCH: MORGAN FAIRCHILD AND NICOLLETTE SHERIDAN ON WHY FAMILY IS SO IMPORTANT AT CHRISTMAS
“Loni and I did Bob Hope specials together back in the day, and recently did a Lifetime movie, ‘Ladies of the ’80s: A Diva’s Christmas’ together,” the actress told Fox News Digital. “She was lovely, kind, always gracious, and just one of the nicest people I’ve ever had the honor of working with in all my years in the business.”
The “Falcon Crest” alum said one recent memory of the late star continues to make her smile.
“In our TV movie, her character ended up with a gray wig, and she looked so fabulous with the gray hair,” the 75-year-old recalled. “We all tried to convince her to go with that in real life, whenever the time came. However, she said that producers would only cast her as a blonde. She had tried to go back to her natural dark hair at one point, and they told her she had to be ‘the blonde’ to get cast.”
“She was radiant in that gray wig, and she was a radiant soul in real life,” said Fairchild. “I am just devastated to lose her. She was such a talent and such a terrific lady. She was the sweetest person. I [still] can’t believe she’s gone.”
Eden and Fairchild were among the first to speak out following Anderson’s death.
“Like many, I am absolutely stunned and heartbroken,” Eden wrote on X at the time. “Our friendship has spanned many years, and news like this is never easy to hear or accept. What can I say about Loni that everyone doesn’t already know? She was a real talent, with a razor-smart wit and a glowing sense of humor… but, even more than that, she had an impeccable work ethic.”
“Loni was a darling lady and a genuinely good person,” wrote Eden. “I am truly at a loss for words… Loni, you were one in a trillion, my friend, and even a trillion more.”
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Back in 2021, Anderson spoke to Fox News Digital about being “the blonde.”
“I was a brunette actress in ’75,” she said at the time. “So if you see old reruns, you can see the transformation of my hair. I was every color in the rainbow. I even tried to be a redhead. But the blonde thing happened because the cameraman kept telling me my hair was too dark. It absorbed the light, and it was like an ink blob. And so, I started experimenting with different colors from the drugstore. And the lighter my hair got, the more work I got.”
“When the ‘WKRP’ pilot came along, I wasn’t quite blonde,” Anderson shared. “Hugh Wilson, who created the show, said, ‘Let’s make her look like Lana Turner and be the smartest person in the room.’… I then went to a professional hairstylist and said, ‘Make me a blonde.’ And that’s how my blondeness began. I always thought, ‘I’ll go back to my dark hair.’ But it just didn’t happen. I was who I was, and I was a blonde.”
“I remember I went to Grant Tinker, the head of NBC, when we did ‘WKRP’ and said, ‘I really want to do this movie. Could I do it with black hair?’ And he said, ‘No – I didn’t hire Loni Anderson to have black hair,” she continued. “I realized I had created this image.”
Anderson admitted she didn’t expect to be seen as a sex symbol, but welcomed the role.
“I had this discussion with Ann-Margret,” said Anderson. “Will there ever be a time when our names won’t be followed by ‘bombshell’ or ‘sex symbol?’ It becomes a part of your name. And you know, I’d never thought I would reach that point… I never thought I would be Loni Anderson, sex symbol. But I embrace it.”
