Beloved Aussie entertainer Jeanne Little dies aged 82

Lisa Wilkinson has paid tribute to beloved Australian entertainer Jeanne Little who died aged 82 over the weekend.

Wilkinson worked with Little on panel show Beauty and the Beast in the 90s,

"She was such a sweetheart," Wilkinson said about Little on The Sunday Project. "She was a gorgeous woman. She was gracious. She was kind to somebody who was brand new to television.

"She was best known as being able to take a whole stack of green garbage bags and turn them into amazing fashion."

Wilkinson added that Little had the same personality off camera as she did on the small screen, saying, "That was one of the many things we loved about her".

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Little's daughter Katie announced her mother had died via a Facebook post on Saturday night.

This is a huge shock - but I'm so grateful," she's reported to have written. "Love you all my friends."

Little made her television debut on The Mike Walsh Show in 1974, and two years later won the Gold Logie for most popular television personality. Starring roles on the stage and small screen followed, and by the 1990s, she was a regular, lively panel member on the talk show Beauty and the Beast, known for her outrageous costumes and hilarious personality.

She was diagnosed with rapid-onset Alzheimer's disease in 2009, a diagnosis that was made public two years later as her family explained her absence from the public eye. She was being cared for in the same Sydney nursing home as her husband Barry, who died last year.

In a 2015 interview with Studio 10, Little's daughter Katie opened up about her mother's battle with dementia.

"She's not the same person that she was, but she's still my mother, so it's difficult," she said.

"The only blessing with Alzheimer's is that she doesn't know what she's going through because it's just so horrible."  

In the interview, Katie revealed one of the first moments she realised her mother's health was declining was when she couldn't remember the names of some of her many friends in the Australian entertainment industry.

"It was so sad because I borrowed mum's lovely silver clutch purse and inside there was a little piece of paper with a couple of names written in mum's handwriting and I realised when mum was running off to the other room it was because she couldn't remember people's names and these were really dear close friends … it's tragic looking back on things like that," she said.

This story first appeared on News.com.au and is republished with permission.