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Beloved Co-Host Of Local Cooking Show Remembered

Dolores “Peachy” Sampson and Elaine Agnello are pictured on the set of their locally produced and popular cooking show, “Cooking with Peachy and Elaine.” Sampson died on Jan. 13. Submitted photos

Dolores “Peachy” Sampson, a local cooking celebrity, passed away on Jan. 13.

Sampson was half of the dynamic duo on “Cooking with Peachy and Elaine” on Jamestown Cable 8. The beloved show ran for 17 years and starred Sampson and Elaine Agnello, who passed away in 2011.

Dan Shea, Sampson’s grandson, fondly remembers the Peachy and Elaine cooking show from his youth. Shea recalled that he participated in his grandmother’s show a few times, and noted that his grandmother was just as loving and funny off-screen as she was on-screen.

“I was usually too modest to mention my grandmother’s small-town fame when I was younger, but people still tended to find out who I was,” Shea said. “‘You’re Peachy’s grandson!’ they would say. They weren’t wrong. My grandmother was a local celebrity, but she was mostly just grandma to me. She cooked, cleaned and sewed like any other grandma. She just happened to be on television for 17 years.”

He said he later began to realize the impact his grandmother had on her viewers.

“When I started to get a little older, I began to understand how much she meant to so many people,” Shea said. “The show has been off the air for almost 15 years, and my grandmother still had strangers approaching her in 2021 to discuss episodes, recipes and her chemistry with Elaine.”

Randy Sweeney, then in charge of advertising for Quality Markets, got in touch with Elaine and Peachy to see if they would be interested in doing a cooking show. The first episode of “Cooking with Peachy and Elaine” aired in November 1984.

The pair started the show at Paragon Cable and eventually moved to Time Warner Cable. In a 2011 feature story that ran in The Post-Journal, Sampson said the two of them would tape two half-hour episodes back-to-back every two weeks. The same episode would run five nights in a row.

Sampson and Agnello would make three to four recipes during each episode that resulted in a complete meal. For every two episodes they produced, they made $150.

The show’s last episode was recorded in December 2008.

Pictured is Peachy Sampson preparing a fruit salad. Sampson recently passed away on Jan. 13.

Shea said Sampson continued on with her love for cooking despite the ending of the television series. Often, he would enjoy his grandmother’s cooking with his family members.

“For years, I was blessed with the best Sunday dinners that one could imagine,” he said. “A typical Sunday feast at my grandparent’s house would consist of some sort of beef roast with vegetables and lots of gravy, followed by a perfect pie, likely a cherry or rhubarb. On holidays, things got taken up a notch as she prepared her famous, ‘Raspberries on a Cloud’ dessert, which was an odd combination of saltine crackers, egg whites, heavy cream and raspberries.”

In the 2011 feature story, Sampson recalled her “wonderful friendship with Agnello” and sadness upon her passing in 2011. “She was my best friend,” Sampson said. “I could tell her anything. I was always trying to play tricks on her. She was always so straight forward.”

Sampson also thanked the fans of the show for remaining faithful to it, and she and Agnello greatly appreciated the viewers.

Shea said his grandmother was known for personality.

“When she wasn’t cooking, she was likely making somebody laugh, though not always on purpose,” he said. “She was a goofball and was always willing to be the butt of a joke if it produced a chuckle. The fun-loving energy she displayed on television was the same fun-loving energy she displayed at home.”

His original trepidation to mention his famous grandmother has since disappeared, Shea added.

“I was usually too modest to mention my grandmother’s small-town fame when I was younger, but I have no problem bragging about her today,” he said. “My grandmother was an incredible cook and an even more incredible person. I’m glad so many people got to know her.”

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