Chicago, Sep 29 (IANS): Writer-producer Agnes Nixon, known as the grande dame of daytime drama for creating, writing, and producing soap operas including "All My Children", "One Life to Live" and "Search for Tomorrow", is dead. She was 93.

Nixon died on Wednesday in Rosemont, Illinois, after suffering complications from Parkinson's disease, reports nytimes.com.

Nixon was regarded as a pioneer for women in television, who transformed the traditional soap opera by weaving real-world issues into her shows.

She famously modelled the fictional Pine Valley setting of "All My Children" on the suburban region where she lived outside Philadelphia. She kept her home base there even as the TV production company she ran with her husband, Robert Nixon, expanded.

A native of Chicago, Agnes attended Northwestern University and decided to focus on a career as a writer.

Over her long career, Nixon earned five Daytime Emmy Awards and five Writers Guild Awards, among many other honours. She was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2010. She received a lifetime achievement honour from the Daytime Emmy Awards the same year.

Nixon is survived by three daughters, a son, 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Robert Nixon died in 1996.