Polly Holliday, the Alabama native who helped turn “kiss my grits” into a national phrase, has died at the age of 88.

Tributes poured in Wednesday for the Jasper-born star who was known for her role as Flo in the CBS sitcom Alice. She was the last surviving member of the show’s principal cast which ran from 1976 to 1985.

Holliday won two Golden Globes and received four Emmy nominations for her portrayal of the beehive-wearing waitress. She was also the star of her own short-lived spin-off series called Flo in 1980.

And the Associated Press had an inside scoop on that famous catchphrase:

“As for the ‘Kiss my grits!’ line, the Alabama-born Holliday was quick to distance herself from it, telling interviewers that the line was ‘pure Hollywood’ and not a regional saying. But she identified with Flo.

‘She was a Southern woman you see in a lot of places,’ she told The Sarasota Herald-Tribune in 2003. ‘Not well educated, but very sharp, with a sense of humor and a resolve not to let life get her down.'”
Associated Press

Some of her other roles included:

The Client
Home Improvement
All the President’s Men
The Parent Trap
Mrs. Doubtfire

Holliday was born in Jasper but had connections across the state during her lifetime. She grew up in Childersburg and Sylacauga before going to college at the Alabama College for Women, now known as the University of Montevallo.

She spent time as a piano teacher in Alabama and sang in a church choir in Mobile.

In 2000, Holliday was inducted into the Alabama Stage and Screen Hall of Fame.

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