What sad news. The beauty icon, Farrah Fawcett, lost her battle with cancer today. Her swimsuit poster launched a thousand male fantasies. Her feathered locks made curling irons de rigueur for women and kick started the most pervasive hair trend of the ’80s.

She was Hollywood’s penultimate golden girl. And, now, Farrah Fawcett, who epitomized the all-American ideal of beauty, has died after a three-year battle with anal cancer. She was 62. Her spokesman, Paul Bloch, says Fawcett died Thursday morning in a Santa Monica hospital.

In September 2006, Fawcett learned she had anal cancer. The devastating news led to a reconciliation with her on-and-off boyfriend, Ryan O’Neal, 68, the father of their troubled son Redmond, 24. O’Neal was by her side as Fawcett went through chemotherapy and radiation treatments and the actress was declared cancer-free in February 2007. But later that spring, she learned the cancer had returned. After growing weary of ineffective treatments in the USA, Fawcett fled to Germany in September 2007 for alternative cancer therapies.

Her friend, Craig Nevius, told People that Fawcett was “discouraged by the treatments she got here. The fact that it recurred after all that she went through was heartbreaking.”

Her last dying wish was to marry the “love of her life” Ryan O’Neal. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family.