Film and stage star Thelma "Butterfly" McQueen died on Dec. 22, 1995, from burns suffered when her nightgown caught fire as she was trying to light a kerosene heater in her small south Augusta home. She was 84.

Throughout her life, Miss McQueen divided her time between living in New York City and living in Augusta. She is best known for playing the slave girl Prissy in the movie Gone With the Wind, but she racked up a long list of performing credits in many other movies, TV shows and stage productions. The early '50s found Miss McQueen co-starring in the ground-breaking TV show Beulah, one of the first TV situation comedies to star black actors.

She spent a short time in 1961 working for the city of Augusta's recreation department, teaching acting classes at Augusta's YWCA and teaching little theater at Gregg-Graniteville Park in Graniteville, S.C. She played a fairy godmother named Aunt Thelma who granted wishes for the 1978 ABC television special that later earned her a Daytime Emmy Award. It aired at different times under three titles: The Seven Wishes of Joanna Peabody, The Seven Wishes of Calvin Brundage and The Seven Wishes of a Rich Kid.