Jane Henson, who was married Muppets creator Jim Henson and was instrumental in the development of the world-famous puppets, died Tuesday morning, April 2, 2013, according to a representative for the Jim Henson Company. She was 78.

Henson died at her home in Connecticut after a “long battle with cancer.”

Jane and Jim met in a puppetry class at the University of Maryland in 1954. Jane Henson was a performer, puppet designer and builder, and Jim Henson’s business partner. She was a co-creator of the show “Sam and Friends,” which aired from 1955 to 1961, and though she quit full-time Muppeteering in the early 1960s to raise her and Jim’s children,  she continued to train new Muppeteers (including Frank Oz) and performed non-speaking muppets on “Sesame Street” through at least the ’80s. She was also responsible for the hiring of puppeteer Steve Whitmire in 1978, after he gave her an impromptu audition in an Atlanta, Georgia airport restaurant.

Jane and Jim Henson married in 1959; though they separated in 1986, they remained close until Jim’s death in 1990. (via CNN, Wikipedia)