<P> Beneath his crusty, irascible exterior, Archie is intensely protective of Edith and becomes upset at even the thought of losing her . In the episode "Too Good Edith," the 209th and final episode of All in the Family, Edith becomes seriously ill while frantically helping Archie cook Irish dinners for a St. Patrick's Day party at the bar . She had been suffering from phlebitis and didn't tell Archie, but he finds out anyway and is upset that she had hidden it from him . </P> <P> In 1980, on the All in the Family continuation series Archie Bunker's Place, Archie's worst nightmare becomes a reality when Edith dies (off - camera) of a stroke . In the one - hour Season 2 premiere, "Archie Alone," which originally aired on CBS on November 2, 1980, Archie and Stephanie are shown still dealing with the grief, having lost Edith several weeks prior . Near the episode's end, after neighbors and friends had removed Edith's personal items to help him cope, Archie, still in denial and alone in their bedroom, finds one of her pink slippers left behind underneath the bed, and gradually breaks down in sobs as he recalls the morning he discovered Edith had passed away in her sleep: </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td> "</Td> <Td> It wasn't supposed to be like this, y'know; I was supposed to be the first one to go . I know I always used to kid ya about you going first; you know I never meant none of that . And that morning when ya was layin' there, I was shaking you an' yelling at you to go down and fix my breakfast, I didn't know . Ya had no right to leave me that way, Edith, without givin' me just one more chance to say I love you . </Td> <Td>" </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> "</Td> <Td> It wasn't supposed to be like this, y'know; I was supposed to be the first one to go . I know I always used to kid ya about you going first; you know I never meant none of that . And that morning when ya was layin' there, I was shaking you an' yelling at you to go down and fix my breakfast, I didn't know . Ya had no right to leave me that way, Edith, without givin' me just one more chance to say I love you . </Td> <Td>" </Td> </Tr>

What happened in the last episode of all in the family