“Mama Gene” Runkis, who appeared on the Destination America reality series “Hillbilly Blood,” died Wednesday after a battle with cancer. She was 68.
Her son, series star Eugene Runkis, announced her death via Facebook on Wednesday, writing, “Mom lost her fight with stage 4 cancer this morning at 9:25 a.m.”
Runkis was born Diane Kay Runkis in Detroit in 1947.
The series, which stars Runkis and Spencer “Two Dogs” Bolejack, follows life in Cold Mountain, North Carolina, as Runkis and Bolejack offer tips on backwoods survival, fashioning salvaged items into new devices. Destination America has described the show as “sort of a Hillbilly MacGyver.”
“We are very saddened for Eugene and his family,” Marc Etkind, general manager of Destination America, told TheWrap on Thursday. “Our hearts go out to them.”
The most recent season of “Hillbilly Blood” aired its finale on June 27.
