Love Boat, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and Murder, She Wrote had made her a widely recognizable character actress. She also appeared in a variety of Broadway shows, including a 1979 revival of Oklahoma! as Aunt Eller, for which she received rave reviews. Wickes' career had a resurgence in the late 1980s and 1990s. She was cast as the mother of Shirley MacLaine's character in the film Postcards from the Edge (1990) and portrayed Marie Murkin in the television movie and series adaptations of The Father Dowling Mysteries (1989–1991). She played one of her most notable roles in these years when she was cast as Sister Mary Lazarus in Sister Act (1992) and in the sequel Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993). She appeared in the 1994 film version of Little Women before she became ill. Death and legacy Wickes suffered from numerous ailments in the last years of her life that cumulatively resulted in her hospitalization, where she fell and broke her hip, prompting surgery. She died of complications following the surgery on October 22, 1995, at the age of 85 at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. Her final film role, voicing Laverne in Disney's animated feature The Hunchback of Notre Dame, was released posthumously in 1996. Wickes reportedly had only one voice recording session left for the film when she died. Jane Withers came in to finish the character's remaining six lines of dialogue. She was interred beside her parents at the Shiloh Valley Cemetery in Shiloh, Illinois. Wickes was inducted posthumously into the St. Louis Walk of Fame in 2004. Personal life Wickes left a large estate and made a $2 million bequest in memory of her parents, establishing the Isabella and Frank Wickenhauser Memorial Library Fund for Television, Film and Theater Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. Wickes was a lifelong Republican. Filmography Film Short films Television Awards and nominations References External links Washington University Library Site - Papers of Mary Wickes Wickes' Entry on the St. Louis Walk of Fame 1910 births 1995 deaths American film actresses American musical theatre actresses American stage actresses American radio actresses American television actresses American philanthropists American people of German descent American people of Scottish descent American people of Irish descent American Protestants Deaths from kidney failure Actresses from St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis alumni 20th-century American actresses 20th-century American singers California Republicans