QVC's Jeanne Bice Dead at 71

Jeanne Bice, the creator and on-air peddler of QVC mainstay clothing line Quacker Factory, died Friday at 71. The cause of her death was not announced.

Bice, who first appeared on QVC in 1995, was known for her headbands, boisterous personality and even more boisterous clothing, which was typically sold in bright colors and embroidered with seasonal and holiday-themed adornments. She had a call-and-response catchphrase/greeting with home-shoppers who would call in: "Quack, quack!" It was clearly a derivative of the name of her brand, which itself came from a time when she was under pressure to meet deadline and exclaimed, "I feel like I'm going Quackers!"

Bice was born July 20, 1939 and grew up in Fond du Lac, Wis. As an adult, she lived in Ripon, Wis., where she raised her two sons, Tim and Lee, with her husband Butch. Boredom led her to open a gift shop called The Silent Woman with a friend, MaryAnn. What started as a hobby turned into a needed source of income when Butch died unexpectedly. Jeanne and MaryAnn translated their knowledge of seasonal gift-shop buying habits into a line of apparel and what would become Quacker Factory was born. Bice chronicled her life's highs and lows in the 2005 memoir, Pull Yourself Up by Your Bra Straps and Other Quacker Wisdom.