Offers for acting roles began to decline around this time, and she devoted herself to other pursuits including political study; she received a bachelor's degree in political science from City College of New York in 1975. In 1979 McQueen won a Daytime Emmy Award for her performance as Aunt Thelma, a fairy godmother in the "ABC Afterschool Special" episode "The Seven Wishes of Joanna Peabody." She had one more role of substance in the 1986 movie "The Mosquito Coast".