This is an early look at my weekly "Whatever Happened to.." column published each Wednesday in the LA Daily News, The Long Beach Press Telegram and The Daily Breeze...
When Edna Garrett bid farewell to Blair, Joe, Natalie and Tootie on “The Facts of Life” in 1986, it was just the beginning of another chapter in the life of the woman who played her: Charlotte Rae.

“I’ve had a busy, busy time for quite awhile,” she told me last week. “I made a movie with Peter O’Toole and Marcia Gay Harden which I thought was going to come out at the end of November but it wasn’t quite ready. It’s called ‘Christmas Cottage.’ Then I did a few cruises where I sang and lectured, I did a club in San Francisco called The Plush Room and it was a lot of fun. Then I did a cameo in a movie with Adam Sandler that’s coming out in June.”
Rae, who turns 82 on April 22, has done guest spots in recent years on such shows as “King of Queens” and “Strong Medicine” and as the voice of Nanny in “101 Dalmations: The Series.”

She doesn’t mind being forever known as Mrs. Garrett, the character who began as the housekeeper on “Different Strokes” in 1978 then spent seven seasons looking after some of the students at a private all-girl school.

“That was such a dear show,” she said. “We really presented issues that were wonderful for opening up dialogue between parents and their kids. It was warm and sweet...Friends of mine who actors, in their early 30s, tell me they grew up with us and tell me they have such a feeling for Mrs. Garrett and the girls. I guess it’s meant a lot to them. It makes me feel very, very grateful.”

Prior to her Mrs. Garrett years, Rae had already made a splash on television with guest spots with Ed Sullivan and as a cast member of such shows as “Car 54 Where Are You?” “Hot L Baltimore,” “Sesame Street” and many television movies including her Emmy-nominated performance in 1975’s “Queen of the Stardust Ballroom.”

But she also has wowed on the stage in productions of A “Three Wishes for Jamie,” “The Threepenny Opera,” “Li'l Abner,” and “Pickwick.”

Back in 2001, Rae reunited with most of the “Facts of Life” cast for a reunion movie and remains quite close to some of the girls.

“I’m very close with Lisa (Welchel) and her husband and children and Nancy McKeon and her husband and she has two little ones,” she said. “I admire Mindy (Cohen) very much but I haven’t seen her in years. She doesn’t like it when I say I discovered her but, it’s true. I’m grateful that we had her because she was a wonderful compliment to the other girls. A tremendous talent.”

Rae, who keeps busy with her grandchildren when not working, is excited about the recent re-release on CD of an album she made back in 1955 called “Songs I Taught My Mother” which is filled with “silly, sinful, and satirical” songs.

“It’s got the greatest material,” she said. “The best songs.”

And if another good TV role comes along?

“I love television,” she said. “I wouldn’t mind getting a recurring part on television. I wouldn’t want to do it every week."

DOUBLE TAKE: A few years back, Charlotte Rae became another Charlotte on a "Sex and the City" spoof for the TV Land Awards. She was joined by Sally Struthers (Samantha), Bea Arthur (Carrie) and Katherine Helmond (Miranda).

Online extras:
On her "Facts" character: “They wanted me to be perfect as Mrs. Garrett. I kept saying, ‘Can’t I scream at the kids?’ Can’t I get angry then apologize?’ But they always made me to be absolutely perfect....But she grew. She got married and went into the Peace Corps. It was a good way to end.””

On Cloris Leachman taking over for seasons 8 and 9: “I was happy for her. I was with it seven years and the contract was up. I just felt that I had delved into every nook and cranny of Mrs. Garrett. I know that Jean Stapleton (Edith Bunker on “All in the Family”) said the same thing. It was time to move on.”