Judy Freudberg, a writer whose work for Sesame Street entertained and educated children for more than 30 years, died June 8, 2012, in New York City. She was 62.
According to news reports, the cause was brain cancer.
Freudberg, who earned 15 Daytime Emmy Awards for her work, was born on July 12, 1949, in Memphis, Tennessee, and graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in communications.
She started at Sesame Street in 1971 as an assistant in the music department. She became a writer four years later.
She wrote for many of the show’s characters and was the impetus behind one of its most popular segments, Elmo’s World.
She retired from Sesame Workshop, the show’s production company, in 2010.
In addition to her television work, Freudberg, along with colleague Tony Geiss, who died last year, co-wrote a handful of animated features films: The Land Before Time, An American Tail and Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird. She also wrote numerous Sesame Street home videos.
Before her passing, she reportedly co-wrote a pilot script for a live-action comedy, tentatively titled Woof!
Survivors include two sisters and a brother.