NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 06: Joan Rivers attends the "The Realistic Joneses" opening night at The Lyceum Theater on April 6, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images) (credit: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Legendary comic Joan Rivers died Thursday at the age of 81.

“It is with great sadness that I announce the death of my mother, Joan Rivers. She passed peacefully at 1:17pm surrounded by family and close friends. My son and I would like to thank the doctors, nurses, and staff of Mount Sinai Hospital for the amazing care they provided for my mother,” daughter Melissa Rivers said in a statement through her mother’s longtime publicist Jusyt Katz.

“Cooper and I have found ourselves humbled by the outpouring of love, support, and prayers we have received from around the world. They have been heard and appreciated. My mother’s greatest joy in life was to make people laugh. Although that is difficult to do right now, I know her final wish would be that we return to laughing soon.”

The host of E!’s “Fashion Police” stopped breathing and went into cardiac arrest just before 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 28 at an Upper East Side clinic in New York where she was having a procedure done on her vocal cords.

She was rushed to a Mount Sinai Hospital where she was placed in intensive care in a medically induced coma.

Rivers was moved out of intensive care Wednesday into a private room where she died a day later.

Reaction to her death was widespread on Twitter and other social media and came from both the entertainment and political worlds.

Former First Lady Nancy Reagan released the following statement: “Joan Rivers was not only a dear friend, but one of the kindest and funniest people I ever knew. I doubt there’s anyone who hasn’t laughed at her or with her until they cried. Today our tears are those of sadness. I know I join millions in saying, ‘Thanks for the good times Joan, we will truly miss you.’

PHOTOS: 2014 CELEBRITY DEATHS | JOAN RIVERS: 1933-2014

Rivers’ career was launched in 1968 after she appeared on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson. She went on to host a variety of other shows on television, including “The Joan Rivers Show”, which she won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host in 1990.

TV talk show legend Larry King told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO Rivers was a one of a kind person that we’ll never see again.