But today, the journal Pediatrics asserts that it wasn't scarlet fever that caused Mary's blindness -- it was viral meningoencephalitis, an inflammatory disease that attacks the brain. It got the child in "The Velveteen Rabbit" (although the kid survives, so, really, the fever got the stuffed rabbit). A younger brother, Charles, died at nine months. The television version of Mary Ingalls became a teacher in a school for the blind and married a blind fellow teacher, Adam Kendall, who was portrayed by Linwood Boomer. Mary, Laura's sister, went blind as a teenager after contracting scarlet fever, according to … CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network. Here's the line from the "Little House" novel "By the Shores of Silver Lake": "Mary and Carrie and baby Grace and Ma all had scarlet fever. She called him "Manly"; he called her "Beth." It may not be the biggest bombshell to hit the medical world, but to “Little House” fans, the question remains: Why did Wilder change her sister’s illness to scarlet fever? ", PHOTO: Richard Bull played Nels Oleson -- proprietor of Oleson's Mercantile and long-suffering husband of Harriet Oleson. Far worst of all, the fever had settled in Mary's eyes and Mary was blind.". “We regret to report the death of Miss Mary Ingalls.” On October 17, 1928, an elderly blind woman named Mary Amelia Ingalls died in a small rural community in South Dakota. ", PHOTO: Born Eugene Maurice Orowitz in 1936, Landon changed his name when he became an actor. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Who Is Melissa Sue Anderson? Parents create 'visual bucket list' for daughter who's going blind, Finally, and perhaps the most important piece of evidence, in a letter Wilder wrote to her daughter, Rose, right before her book “By the Shores of Silver Lake” was published, she makes reference “some sort of spinal sickness.” The letter also mentions that Mary saw a specialist in Chicago who said “the nerves of her eyes were paralyzed and there was no hope.”. In the "Little House" series, Mary Ingalls was said to have been blinded by scarlet fever, Researchers found that the real Mary Ingalls might have had viral meningoencephalitis. Dean Butler played Almanzo Wilder, the man who won Laura's heart. ", Mary Ingalls did indeed lose her sight when she was 14, in 1879. Melissa Sue Anderson played Mary Ingalls on the TV series, Harry Potter's headache finally diagnosed. 1877 - 1889 - Mary Amelia Ingalls was born in Pepin County, Wisconsin, on January 10, 1865. She works closely with child advocacy causes, and she also became an AIDS activist after "Little House" co-star Steve Tracy died of complications from AIDS in 1986. Gilbert, 51, married actor Timothy Busfield, and the couple resides in rural Michigan. 1:17 PM EST, Mon November 7, 2016, PHOTO: PHOTO: Carrie, Mary, and Laura Ingalls, c. 1882. PHOTO: The real-life Ingalls family experienced loss after loss including a locust plague that caused devestating agricultural damage. Poor Mary was stricken blind at a young age and later lost her baby in a fire. The woman behind the Little House books really was born in the time of westward expansion — February 7, 1867, outside Pepin, Wisconsin, as Biography tells us. Woman: Amen to that! Photo by Herbert Hoover Presidential Library. Michael Landon played the role of "Pa" with so much swagger that it's hard to believe the real Charles Ingalls actually looked like this. In fact, the Blind School she attended forbade interaction between its male and female students. PHOTO: Meanwhile, say "scarlet fever" to a worried parent, and he or she hears something that's dire and dangerous, thanks to the stories they remember of Mary Ingalls' blindness or Beth March's death. Scarlet fever is mentioned in other books from the period, including “Little Women” and “Frankenstein.”. When Mary was fourteen years old, she became severely ill. Fun fact: Landon made the decision to blow up the town of Walnut Grove in the series finale because he didn't want the set recycled into a trashy movie set. Related Article Although Alison Arngrim's "Little House" character, nasty Nellie Oleson, was constantly at odds with Gilbert's character, Laura, the two women are best friends in real life. The television show and popular book series drew on the real-life experiences of Laura Ingalls Wilder. In real life, Mary Amelia Ingalls (Wilder’s older sister, the oldest child of Charles and Caroline Ingalls) never married or had children. It's a skill she mastered during the series. But that's just my perspective," Tarini says. © 2021 Cable News Network. (2013, February 4). LIONSGATE HOME ENTERTAINMENT. Verification email has been resent. According to Melissa Gilbert, Jonathan, 47, is a stockbroker in New York City. Karen Grassle, now 73, played family matriarch Caroline "Ma" Ingalls. The real life Mary Ingalls did not have a baby, nor did she get married… Melissa Gilbert, the actress who played the feisty, kindhearted Laura Ingalls from ages 9-19, still knows how to drive a stagecoach. Mary might not have become blind due to scarlet fever after all Landon died of cancer in 1991 at age 54. Ted Shepherd/NBCU Photo Bank We were talking about scarlet fever, and I said, ‘Oh, scarlet fever makes you go blind. Mary Ingalls: God’s world isn’t fear and hate.It’s love, its understanding. And I'm like, it's the 21st century!'". The TV version of Mary Ingalls, and the real Mary Ingalls the character was originally based on are quite different. NBCU Photo Bank/Michael Tullberg/Getty Images. In her novel "By the Shores of Silver Lake" author Laura Ingalls Wilder described how scarlet fever had taken over the Ingalls household. Melissa Sue Anderson's character, Mary Ingalls, arguably suffered the most hardship of all the "Little House" characters. “Parents look concerned … so I have to debunk it in the office.”. University of Michigan Health System. Here's what the residents of Walnut Grove are up to today. Over the course of 10 years, she and her team of researchers pored over old papers and letters written by Laura Ingalls Wilder, local newspaper accounts of Mary’s illness and epidemiological data on blindness and infectious disease in the late 19th century. Updated
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