It breaks my heart to even be writing the following sentence, but here it is: The Golden Girls will be a little less golden from now on, as the show matriarch, Estelle Getty, passed away today. Getty played Sofia Petrillo, or “Ma”, the fiercely hysterical mother of Dorothy Zbornak, or “pussycat”. Whether she’s losing the Pope’s ring, or doing her amazing Sonny Bono impression, or doing Picasso, you could always count on Getty to nail the joke, the barbs flying out of her mouth at lightning speed. She was a 7 time Emmy nominee, and walked away with the award in 1988 (You can see her acceptance speech here. She beat Monuh and Jacquee!)

The end of her incredible life was frought with disease and dementia, and today, she left us at the age of 84 years old. Though, thankfully, she always managed to stay out of Shady Pines. She left us with many gems on TGG, including this:

“Let me tell you girls the three most important things I learned about life: number one, hold fast to your friends; number two, there’s no such thing as security; and number three, don’t go see “Ishtar.” Woof.”

Not a life lesson, per se, and a little dated, maybe, but good advice nonetheless. So, to honor this brilliant woman’s career and legacy, here’s a short tribute video found on Youtube with only a handful of what amounts to thousands of show highlights.

After the jump, some of my favorite Sophia quotes. Estelle Getty is and will forever be a legend.

[Sophia is noisily eating Fritos. Dorothy gets very annoyed]
Dorothy: MA, WOULD YOU PLEASE STOP THAT!
Sophia: These are FRITOS, Dorothy. What do you want me to do, swallow them whole?

Blanche: [referring to her brother and his lover visiting] My goodness, what would the neighbors think if they saw two men lying in my bed?
Sophia: They’d think it’s Tuesday!

Sophia: Make way for the victors.
Rose: You won the big game?
Sophia: No, Rose. We lost and we all changed our names to Victor.

Dorothy: [after being persuaded to go out dancing] Oh all right I’ll come. Ma where are my dancing shoes?
Sophia: In the Smithsonian, right next to Fred Astaire’s. How the hell should I know?

Rose: Mmmmm, Sophia! The kitchen smells wonderful. Is it Chef Boyardee?
Sophia: [Sophia holds up a knife] Stick it in my heart, Rose, it’ll hurt less!

Rose: Heaven is full of cows, chickens, horses and pigs…
Sophia: I hope Heaven has *boots*!

[Attempting to tell Blanche that she's too old to have a baby]
Rose: [to Blanche] …I mean, don’t you think that ship has sailed?
Sophia: That ship has sunk!

Rose: Penny for your thoughts Sophia?
Sophia: You’re and idiot and that’s on the house.