Shelley Fabares, the Santa Monica native who grew up on television as Mary Stone on "The Donna Reed Show," scored a No. 1 hit with "Johnny Angel" and earned two Emmy nominations on "Coach," died Sunday, Aug. 23, in Los Angeles after a brief illness. She was 82.

Her family announced the death in a statement to the Associated Press, saying they would remember Fabares for "her kindness, loyalty, wit, courage, and beautiful spirit." No cause of death was disclosed.

Born Michele Ann Marie Fabares on Jan. 19, 1944, she started acting at age 3 and landed her first TV credit at 10 on "The Loretta Young Show." By 9, Frank Sinatra was singing "Young at Heart" to her on an NBC special.

Her breakout came at 14, when she was cast as the eldest daughter on ABC's "The Donna Reed Show," a role she held from 1958 to 1963. In a 1993 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Fabares called Reed "simply an extraordinary woman" who "had the most profound influence on me."

Capitalizing on that fame, Fabares recorded "Johnny Angel," backed by Darlene Love and the Blossoms with Glen Campbell on guitar. The single hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1962, stayed there two weeks and sold more than a million copies. She debuted the song on a "Donna Reed" episode a couple of months earlier.

"I literally cannot sing. So there's a lot of overdubbing," she admitted in a 1983 interview, as reported by the Hollywood Reporter. "The girls in the back — 'Could you sing a little louder please?'"

Fabares went on to co-star with Elvis Presley in three films: "Girl Happy" (1965), "Spinout" (1966) and "Clambake" (1967). She played the wife of Chicago Bears running back Brian Piccolo in the landmark 1971 telefilm "Brian's Song," then played Francine Webster, a business rival of Bonnie Franklin's character, on Norman Lear's "One Day at a Time" beginning in 1975.

Her longest-running role came as Christine Armstrong, a TV newscaster married to Craig T. Nelson's football coach, on ABC's "Coach." The show ran nine seasons and brought Fabares two Primetime Emmy nominations.

Off screen, Fabares married music producer Lou Adler in 1964 and divorced in 1980. She married "MAS*H" actor Mike Farrell in 1984 at her aunt Nanette Fabray's Pacific Palisades home. The couple settled in Sherman Oaks before moving to Studio City to care for Fabares' mother, who had Alzheimer's disease. Fabares became a devoted advocate for Alzheimer's research funding.

In 1999, an emergency room visit revealed progressive liver failure. After 22 months on a waiting list, she underwent a transplant at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in October 2000.

She is survived by her husband and stepchildren Erin and Michael.