
Barbara Eden was always close to her "very stylish" mother, who was the credit manager at a jewelry store and prided herself on dressing well. She even inspired Eden to start singing as a young child. "Each night, we'd do dishes and she'd sing Gilbert and Sullivan ditties," the actor told The Sydney Morning Herald, recalling her early memories of family life. "I'd join in and, through her, developed a passion for singing. She always encouraged me and I knew she was there for me."
Years later, Eden's mother was sadly diagnosed with lung cancer and died in 1986. "That final illness was cruelly drawn out and caused her a great deal of pain and suffering," the sitcom star revealed in her memoir, adding that her normally serene mother had hidden the disease for a while. "I later learned through one of her friends that she had been having difficulty breathing at night for a very long time beforehand, but she continued to ignore her symptoms, and never gave me a clue, either," she wrote.
"My guess is that she simply followed her own dictate and rose right above it — until, of course, it was impossible for her to do so anymore," Eden observed.
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