EXCELSIOR!

Pat Loud, Matriarch of ‘An American Family’ Documentary, Dies at 94

She was the star of a PBS show that was the first reality TV series.

In the 1970s, she was one of America’s most famous TV moms. But Pat Loud wasn’t an actress—she was the matriarch of the family that was the focus of the PBS documentary series An American Family. Loud died Sunday at the age of 94 of natural causes “snuggled up safe in her comfy home, attended by loving children Michele, Delilah, Kevin and Grant,” according to a statement provided to Variety. The 1973 show chronicled Loud’s divorce from her husband, Bill, and the coming out of her son, Lance, both of whom have since died. The family statement said Loud was a “fierce, inflexible, forthright matriarch and loyal champion of outsiders and iconoclasts. Her door was never locked and there was always room at her table... Never one for regrets or reflection, she moved forward in life with enthusiasm and courage. A letter from her often closed simply, ‘Excelsior!'”