Kathryn Joosten, 72, best known as the cantankerous, nevertheless endearing, Karen McCluskey on “Desperate Housewives” and the president’s administrator on “The West Wing,” has died.
Joosten, who had fought lung cancer for over 11 years, passed away Saturday with her family near her side at her home in Westlake Village, 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles, her publicist Nadine Jolson announced.
Joosten “was surrounded by love and humor ’til the end,” her family said in a statement. “We are laughing through our tears.”
Joosten earned two Emmy awards for her rendering of Mrs. McCluskey on “Desperate Housewives.” The mega smash concluded its eight-year run on ABC last month with a finale in which Joosten’s character succumbed to cancer.
Joosten was a psychiatric nurse and single mother in an outskirt Chicago suburb when she started her performing at the age of 42.
Joosten was a champion for lung cancer awareness and research and sat on the board of governors for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
She is survived by her sons, Jonathan and Timothy. Plans for a memorial service have yet to be announced.
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