This comic actress of revues, early TV and Broadway found national fame in the 1980s playing Edna Garrett, first as a housekeeper on the NBC sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes" from 1978-79 and then as the house mother and guiding figure to Tootie, Natalie, Jo and Blair on "The Facts of Life" (NBC) from 1979-86. The diminutive Charlotte Rae had a mop of reddish auburn hair, a quavery voice and a demeanor which could be ditsy, motherly, or even occasionally menacing. In the early stages of her career she usually was asked to be goofy on one level or another.A graduate of Northwestern University's famed
