I met Anne once, in 2005 at Worldcon in Glasgow. She was frail then, using a motorised wheelchair part of the time. I was a nobody, without anything significant published, but she still had the time to chat and to listen. I know other writers she personally encouraged significantly when they were starting out. A magnanimous lady.
As for her writing, she is admired and loved by many and seriously underestimated by others. The Talents of Earth / Tower and the Hive series, Doona, Petaybee, the Catteni Sequence, and of course Pern... they are all great, and Dragonrider is a book that will live with me forever.
RIP, Anne McCaffrey.