Waltons creator Earl Hamner dies aged 92

Earl Hamner, the prolific writer who drew upon his Depression-era upbringing in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to create one of television’s most beloved family shows, The Waltons, has died at 92.

His friend Ray Castro, who produced a documentary about him, said he died in Los Angeles and had recently been battling pneumonia. He had been diagnosed with cancer in 2014.

He was a best-selling novelist , wrote eight episodes of the 1960s TV show The Twilight Zone, and, as a screenwriter, adapted the children’s tale Charlotte’s Web, into the hit 2006 film.