The Associated Press

Estelle Getty, the Emmy-winning actress best known for her role on "Golden Girls," died today at her Los Angeles home after years of battling Lewy Body dementia, a neurological disease. She was 84.

"Sadly today ... at 5:35 a.m. Pacific Time, we said our last goodbyes to our little friend Estelle, who passed away and made her journey to the great beyond," her caregiver, Paul Chapdelaine, wrote on Getty's Web site.

During a "Golden Girls" reunion in 2004, her fellow actresses announced that Getty was ill. Lewy Body dementia has symptoms similar to Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.

Funeral plans were pending.

The 4-foot-10-inch Getty got her start playing the "Borscht Belt," but she took a break to raise a family. She returned to the stage and came to prominence on Broadway, playing Harvey Fierstein's mother in "Torch Song Trilogy." When the show came to Los Angeles in 1985, Getty was cast in "Golden Girls" at age 62, according to a biography.

Getty played Sophia Spirelli Petrillo-Weinstock, Bea Arthur's loopy mother, though she was actually slightly younger. She won a supporting actress Emmy for that role in 1988.

Her film debut was in 1978's "Team-Mates" and she had small roles in the hits "Tootsie" and "Mask."

Born Estel Scher in New York City, she would have turned 85 on Friday.

Getty is survived by two sons, Carl and Barry Gettleman. Her late husband, Arthur Gettleman, died in 2004.