[attach id="265562" size="medium"]Joe Conley in The Waltons.[/attach]

Joe Conley, the actor best known as the small town shopkeeper on the TV series The Waltons, has died, aged 85.

The Los Angeles Times reported that, according to his wife Louise, Conley died at a care facility in Southern California on Sunday.

She says he had suffered from dementia.

A native of Buffalo, New York, Conley had bit parts on 1960s series like Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies before he landed the role on the hit CBS show The Waltons in 1972 that would last nearly a decade.

Conley played Ike Godsey, postmaster and owner of the Jefferson County general store frequented by the Walton family in Depression-era Virginia.

He appeared in 172 episodes over nine seasons and in TV movie reunions that lasted into the 1990s.