'Waltons' creator Earl Hamner dies from cancer at 92

LOS ANGELES, March 25 (UPI) -- Television screenwriter and producer Earl Hamner has died after a battle with cancer. He was 92 years old.

Hamner's son, Scott Hamner, confirmed his father's death on Facebook Thursday, saying the Waltons creator died "peacefully in his sleep" in Los Angeles.

"He was surrounded by family, and we were playing his favorite music, John Denver's Rocky Mountain Collection. Dad took his last breath half way through Ricky Mountain High," he wrote.

The author and television producer had been dealing with cancer since June 2014. The disease metastasized shortly after, Scott Hamner said.

CBS's popular show The Waltons, which ran between 1971 and 1981, was based on Hamner's book Spencer's Mountain and a 1963 film of the same name. It focused on a family in rural Virginia during the Great Depression

"I want to thank each and every one of you for your prayers, good wishes and kind thoughts - I can assure you that they sustained Dad and helped him to recover enough to proudly witness the final production of Earl Hamner: Storyteller, become the honored recipient of The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum Humanitarian Award, and accept Media Heritage Founder's Award," the post continued.

"He hung on as tightly as anyone could with insatiable passion and wonder. My heart is broken as I say, 'Goodnight, Dad!'"