'The Simpsons' brings back the late Mrs Krabappel in tribute to actor Marcia Wallace

The Simpsons paid tribute to the late Marcia Wallace in last night's episode of the long-running series, giving her the send off she deserved.

Wallace voiced Edna Krabappel, long-suffering teacher of Bart Simpson at Springfield Elementary, up until her unexpected death in 2013 at the age of 70.

In the preceding years, she had moved on from her on-again, off-again relationship with principal Seymour Skinner, and had married Simpson neighbour Ned Flanders.

Read more: Amazing bits of Simpsons trivia

However, after Wallace's death, Edna passed away in the show too, though without the send off that producer Al Jean had been hoping for.

This was remedied last night in the episode Dairy Queen, the 12th of the show's 32nd season, in which Bart finds Edna's old diary during a garage sale at the Flanders', and discovers just how much she believed in him.

The episode features previously recorded performance from Wallace, used with the blessing of her estate, and ends in a tear-jerking montage of pictures of her and Ned's time together.

“Sadly, it was very surprising passing,” Jean said.

“I didn’t know she was that ill until very close to when it happened. So we never got the chance to give sort of a proper goodbye to her in the show, and this is a small attempt to do that. And, you know, she was so beloved by everybody that worked on The Simpsons, that we just sort of wanted to give her one last moment on the show in her memory.

“It’s just that, it’s nothing more, but, we thought she was the best.”

Wallace began her acting career after moving from small town Iowa to New York, appearing on The Merv Griffin Show and The Bob Newhart Show before stints on shows like Bewitched, The Brady Bunch, A.L.F., Murder, She Wrote, Magnum and Columbo.

Her final speaking role was in the Simpsons episode The Man Who Grew Too Much in the series's 25th season.

She died on October 25, 2013, as a result of pneumonia and sepsis, following a battle with breast cancer.

Watch: Did The Simpsons predict the Ted Cruz debacle?