Pat Loud, the matriarch of "An American Family" has died at age 94. Pat, her husband Bill Loud, and their five children made history when they became the subject of one of the first reality TV series, "An American Family" in 1973.
Her family revealed her death in a statement to Facebook on Monday.
Her family noted:
"With inconsolable sorrow, we are sad to share the news with friends and family that on Sunday January 10 at 1:55pm PT, Pat Loud passed away peacefully in her sleep of natural causes. She was snuggled up safe in her comfy home, attended by loving children Michele, Delilah, Kevin, and Grant."
After graduating from Stanford University in 1948, Pat returned to her hometown, Eugene, Oregon, where she met and married Bill.
The show that made them household names took a close look at their day-to-day lives and documented Pat and Bill's divorce. During that time their son, Alanson "Lance" Russell Loud, also came out as gay, according to People. He was later diagnosed with HIV and passed away from complications due to Hepatitis C in 2001.
Speaking about her decision to have her family filmed in a 2019 interview with The Face, Pat said it was initially meant to be for a few weeks but the show ended up being much longer than that. She explained producer Craig Gilbert originally intended to document several different families but ended up just focusing on the Louds. She admitted to being "naive" at the time.
"I had many reasons I wanted to do it for that short period of time. Mainly, I was very proud of my children and Grant was such an outstanding gifted singer and guitar player," she said. "I thought that would be good for him. And I was having marital problems. I thought, maybe somebody ought to take a good look at this big family. I was very naive. Very naive."
Pat is survived by Kevin Robert, Grant Randolph, Delilah Ann, and Michele Summers Loud. Bill passed away from natural causes in 2018.
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