Dallas star Linda Gray shared a touching throwback snap showing her last Thanksgiving with her son, three days after announcing he had died aged 56.
On Sunday, the actress, 80, announced that Jeff Thrasher had passed away with a series of heartbreaking Instagram snaps. His cause of death has not been confirmed.
Three days later, as she prepared to spend her first Thanksgiving without him, she posted a photo of the two of them together to Instagram. In the photo she hugged her son while he carved a roast turkey in her kitchen.
Gray wrote in the caption: ‘I have so much to be thankful for. Being Jeff’s Mother was an honor. I have such sweet memories of cooking with him. He always carved the Turkey and made his special cranberry sauce.’
On Monday, in sharing the news, she described Jeff as ‘the kindest, funniest, sweetest human being. He brought the world such love and was loved by everyone!’
Linda, who starred as Sue Ellen Ewing on Dallas, shared her son with her late ex-husband Ed Thrasher. The couple also had a daughter Kehly, now 54.
Ed, an art director and photographer, died in 2006 at age 74. He and Linda were married from 1962 to 1983.
His credits included Junior Chef Showdown, The Amazing Race Canada, Vegas rat Rods and Furze World Wonders.
In 2015, Linda wrote a part self-help guide and part memoir, The Road to Happiness is Always Under Construction.
In the book she related tragedies and triumphs: including being temporarily paralysed by polio as a child, how she lost her younger sister Betty to cancer – and how, for more than two decades, she was trapped in a deeply unhappy marriage.
The book includes fascinating insights into the TV show that turned Linda into a global star: ‘A mogul’s wife with a shiny outside and a pickled liver,’ is how Linda describes her career-defining character, who was forever engaged in roller-coaster battles with her Machiavellian, philandering husband.
Fans of the soap were unaware that, off-screen, Linda was herself in an emotionally abusive relationship with her husband and Jeff’s father Ed.
She had married Ed, who was the designer of album covers for musicians such as Frank Sinatra, Jimi Hendrix and Joni Mitchell, at 21, and stated that she realised she had made a mistake the first night of her honeymoon in Acapulco.
In the book, she wrote about the dissolution of her marriage but also gushed about her happiness of her children coming out of the dramatic relationship.
Devoted to her children and grandchildren (Kehly’s sons, Ryder, 23, and Jack, 12), Linda described her life now as ‘absolutely delicious’ and says gratitude is the key.
Linda wrote: ‘I get up in the morning, feet hit the floor, and I say, “Thank you”.’
In her book she cited 60 as a landmark, the age that she chose to be happy.
She penned: ‘I think I felt I knew who I was, I had a grasp on what it felt like to be a woman. And I had this lovely awakening, like lightbulbs turned on.’
When asked if she believe in an afterlife, she said: ‘Oh sure, I believe in it, I want to see all my friends and relatives and have hugs and dance around. But I think people have got to pay attention to the present.
‘Sitting here having breakfast with you is beautiful. Then I am going home to grill wild salmon and courgettes for a friend. Life is for living right now. End of story.’
