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Margaret `Peg` Phillips was a retired accountant when she began taking acting classes at age 65. In 1990 she was cast in the role of Ruth-Anne Miller, the shop keeper in the series `Northern Exposure` (1990). The role was supposed to be only intermittent, but Peg`s portrayal won the hearts of viewers, and Ruth-Anne became a regular role. In addition to `Northern Exposure` (1990), Peg appeared with Shirley MacLaine in Waiting for the Light (1990) and TV movies How the West Was Fun (1994) (TV) and Chase (1985) (TV), and guest appearances in `7th Heaven` (1996), `Touched by an Angel` (1994), and `ER` (1994), and a number of commercials. Born in Everett, Washington, Peg overcame polio, peritonitis, a ruptured aorta, and, at age 81, a broken hip and wrist from being hit by a car. A smoker since age 13, Peg Phillips died of lung disease in a suburban Seattle care center. She was 84.