Virginia Patton Moss, Ruth Dakin Bailey in ‘It’s A Wonderful Life,’ Dead at 97

Virginia Patton Moss, the sole surviving adult cast member from the holiday classic It’s a Wonderful Life, has died. She was 97.

Moss’s death was confirmed by her It’s a Wonderful Life costar, Karolyn Grimes, NBC News reports. Grimes, who starred as Zuzu Bailey in the Frank Capra movie, shared the sad news on her Facebook page.

“We have another angel! Virginia Patton Moss. She was 97 years old,” she wrote, per NBC. “She is now with her beloved Cruse. She will be missed!”

Moss went by her birth name, Virginia Patton, in the 1946 film, in which she played Ruth Dakin Bailey, the sister-in-law of George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart). Her character’s biggest scene in It’s a Wonderful Life comes when she’s first introduced to George and Uncle Billy at the Bedford Falls train station.

Moss was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on June 25, 1925, and raised in Portland, Oregon. After high school, she moved to Los Angeles and attended the University of Southern California. She was cast in It’s a Wonderful Life after Capra saw her in a USC play, according to Deadline.

After her role in It’s a Wonderful Life, Moss starred in four more films: 1947’s The Burning Cross and A Double Life, followed by 1948’s Black Eagle and 1949’s The Lucky Stiff.

She retired from acting after The Lucky Stiff, according to Deadline, and married Cruse W. Moss. The couple moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where they raised three children together.

Moss told Patch in 2012 that she chose to retire from acting because it wasn’t her lifelong dream.

“I couldn’t see me doing that for my life,” she told the outlet. “That isn’t what I wanted. I wanted exactly what I am. Ann Arbor, Michigan, a wonderful husband, wonderful children, a good part of the community. I work hard for the community.”