Photo and Video: Mindy Cohn and Kim Fields reunited to honor Charlotte Rae
Cohn shared this video that Fields recorded of her touching tribute to Rae.
On August 12, 2018, family, friends and fans gathered for the memorial service of Charlotte Rae, who among many roles in her long career as an actress played the original den mother on The Facts of Life. Among those gathered were stars of that show, Mindy Cohn and Kim Fields, who played The Facts of Life's favorite duo Natalie and Tootie. The actresses posted a photo from their reunion to Instagram, which surely brought some cheer to those mourning the loss of Rae. See that post below.
Fans of the show know that Rae was so instrumental to bringing the cast of The Facts of Life together in the first place. It was Rae who discovered Cohn and mentored her to become the snappy comedic actress who was nominated for three Young Artist Awards due to her work with Rae on The Facts of Life. Because of this deep bond, Rae's son asked Cohn to speak to honor his mother, and because Fields was there to record it, you can hear full eulogy in the videos that Cohn shared below:
In her tribute, Cohn talks about how special Rae was, saying, "I loved and bragged about you so ferociously and made no apologies for doing so throughout our 40-year friendship." True to form, she also made time to add a dash of the humor that turned Rae's head all those years ago when she first found Mindy in an actual girls' school. She said with a wink to Rae for being the kind of star who saw something special in Cohn and lifted her up to find her life's purpose, "I will talk about her to everyone. I will always make time to listen to somebody who wants to tell me a story about her, which happens literally every time I am part of a company or in the audience of a theater in New York. And I will, of course, thank her when I win my Golden Globe."