Actor James Arness reportedly passed away in his sleep Friday at his residence in Brentwood, Calif. He was 88 years old. “It just breaks your heart. I knew we’d lose him one of these days,” Singer stated Friday in a telephone interview from her family home in Colorado. Singer mentioned she cried when a close friend called her to tell the news.

“He just had his 88th birthday, but I just didn’t really expect this,” she stated. “I felt sad. I lost a cowboy hero. But I also lost a dear friend.” Singer connected with Arness in 2005, shortly just before the 50th-anniversary celebration of “Gunsmoke” in Dodge City. She kept in contact with the actor by way of letters, telephone calls and personal visits to his house in California.