Mary Tyler Moore, aka Laura Petrie, aka Mary Richards, died Wednesday at age 80. Starring as the fashionable housewife in The Dick Van Dyke Show from 1961-1966, and later as the ground-breaking single working woman on The Mary Tyler Moore Show in the early '70s, she more than held her own against male comedic powerhouses. Mary Tyler Moore set the standard for women’s early roles in television. She later turned in an Oscar-nominated performance in Ordinary People.

Hear more about her in her own words:

“I'm an experienced woman; I've been around ... Well, all right, I might not have been around, but I've been ... nearby.”
-Mary Tyler Moore