Television icon Mary Tyler Moore brought the newsroom into our homes as Mary Richards on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Sadly, the woman who “turned the world on with her smile” died Wednesday at the age of 80 in Connecticut.

“Mary Tyler Moore passed away at the age of 80 in the company of friends and her loving husband of over 33 years, Dr. S. Robert Levine,” her publicist Mara Buxbaum said in a statement.

The gorgeous brown-eyed girl came onto the scene as the sexy housewife Laura Petrie on the Dick Van Dyke Show during the 1960s and then represented a young woman working on the evening news at WJM-TV on the MTM show in the 1970s and it made her a household name and a smash hit.

She always said that she never compromised any of her characters as the audience would see right through it.

“And that’s what the audience was feeling too, as they watched the show and as they watch it now. And overriding all of that is the way it was written. It was written honestly. There was never any manufactured laugh.”

Moore struggled with health problems associated with Type 1 diabetes since being diagnosed at the age of 33. The disease almost caused her to go blind. She wrote a memoir on the condition called Growing Up Again: Life, Loves, and Oh Yeah, Diabetes that was published in 2009.

“A groundbreaking actress, producer and passionate advocate for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Mary will be remembered as a fearless visionary who turned the world on with her smile,” her publicist continued.

Moore will be remembered for her charitable contributions. She became chairwoman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and worked tirelessly for animal rights.

“I would like to be remembered as somebody who made a difference in the lives of animals,” she said in a 1997 interview. “A human being has been given an intellect to make choices, and we know there are other food sources that do not require the killing of a creature that would protest being killed.”

Moore did more than act. She also co-founded MTM Enterprises with her husband at the time Grant Tinker. She worked behind-the-scenes to create shows like Rhoda, the Bob Newhart Show and Hill Street Blues.

She seemed to be unstoppable and was known to love working.

“I just like the continue doing what I’ve been doing. A melange of funny, straight drama, television, movies, a little theater here and there wouldn’t hurt. So if I can keep doing that, I’ll be a very happy person.”

According to People, Moore was on a ventilator and had pneumonia due to “complications from her diabetes.”