Muppets Co-Creator Jane Henson Dead at 78

Jane Henson, the "Muppets matriarch" who helped husband Jim create the beloved puppets, has died at the age of 78 after a long battle with cancer. She first met Jim Henson in a University of Maryland puppetry class in 1954 and the pair created and performed the characters for the Muppets forerunner Sam and Friends, Reuters reports.

Henson gave up full-time Muppeteering in the early '60s to raise the couple's five children, but continued to help her husband develop the project and helped recruit new puppeteers for the Muppet Show. She separated from Jim in 1986, four years before his death, but the couple "continued to share their love of, and vision for, the Muppets," the Henson.com website says. (More Jane Henson stories.)