RIP: DAYS's Lanna Saunders

From the Associated Press and Los Angeles Times:

Lanna Saunders, best known for her long-running role as "Sister Marie Horton" on DAYS OF OUR LIVES has died. She was 65.

"As an actress, as well as a person, Lanna Saunders had an elegance and grace that bespoke the deepest qualities of her soul which made her character, 'Sister Marie,' honest and believable, yet so easy to look at," said Ken Corday, executive producer of DAYS.

Sanders joined the DAYS cast in 1979. She left the show in 1985, after being diagnosed with MS in 1982.

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DAYS Invites Viewers to Daytime's First 'Green Wedding'

Whatever love DAYS OF OUR LIVES isn’t getting from the Emmys this Spring is likely to be more than made up by goodwill from environmentally conscious soap fans.

When DAYS’s resident bad girl “Sami Brady,” portrayed by Alison Sweeney, finally makes it down the aisle (which is not to say she will actually make it through the ceremony…the character has been left at the altar too many times to count) with soulmate “Lucas Roberts” (Bryan Dattilo), the nuptials will be chock-full of what the show is describing as “earth-friendly elements."

Executive producer Ken Corday, points to Al Gore's Academy Award winning global-warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth as an indicator of a growing consciousness of environmental issues by the general public. A higher profile for environmental concerns is also an opportunity for DAYS and the soap industry, Corday said, to "fall in step in helping to raise the viewers' consciousness of certain environmental problems and solutions.”

Partnered with DAYS in putting together the fictional ceremony—set to feature pesticide-free flowers and biodegradable wedding favors—are organic chef Ben Ford (son of actor Harrison Ford) and wedding Web site TheKnot.com.