Soap Star Dies: Rita McLaughlin Walter, Carol on As the World Turns – Soaps.com

Rita Walter (ne McLaughlin) passed away on Christmas.

On December 26, David McLaughlin, the brother of former As the World Turns star Rita Walter, reported that she had died a day earlier, on the anniversary of her exit from the soap in 1981 following an 11-year run as Carol Deming Hughes Stallings Andropoulos Frazier.

My sweet, loving sister Rita was called to Jesus on His birthday,read his message. She was a well-known actress as well as dedicated server of the Lord Jesus.

May you rest in peace, sis. I love you forever, he added. Youve taken my heart with you.

Walter, who has three children with her reverend husband, got her big break in the 1960s when she landed the uncredited role of Patty Dukes double on The Patty Duke Show. Six years later, the budding soap star made her daytime debut as Wendy Phillips on The Secret Storm.

But it was the role of As the World Turns plucky Carol that really put Walter on the map. Introduced to the Oakdale scene as a college student working for much-married Lisa, the heroine tied the knot with her boss son, Tom, only to have second husband Jay Stallings cheat on her with her exs subsequent wife, Natalie!

Thats Walter on the right, third row down.

Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection

Later, Carol, who seemed to attract calamities like flames do moths, wound up adopting Natalies daughter with Jay, who was killed in a construction accident from which he couldve been saved by colleague Steve Andropoulos, who, needless to say, became her next husband. Following their split Carol wouldnt put her daughters neck on the line so that Steve could conduct shady business with James Stenbeck art imitated life when she married a reverend and left town.

Since retiring from showbiz, Walter, 71 when she passed away, had been working as an optician. On this somber occasion, pay your respects to the other soap alumni weve lost in 2022 via the below photo gallery.

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Soap Star Dies: Rita McLaughlin Walter, Carol on As the World Turns - Soaps.com