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Jane Wyatt was one of the women who created our image of the ideal '50s housewife.
Like her sitcom contemporaries Donna Reed and Barbara Billingsley, she lives in our collective memories as she was in those early days of TV: the impeccably dressed, imperturbable wife and mother cooking the family meals in pearls and heels. Her role as Margaret Anderson on Father Knows Best did far more than win her three Emmys in a row. It also won her a permanent place in every boomer's childhood.
Best is not the only reason to remember Wyatt, who died Friday at 96 in her Los Angeles home, according to her publicist. Her career ranged from the love interest in Lost Horizon to Katherine Auschlander in St. Elsewhere to Spock's mom in Star Trek -- a role probably far more familiar to young audiences than Margaret Anderson. She also lent her reliably classy presence to such films as Gentleman's Agreement and Never Too Late.
Still, it's her six-year stint on Father Knows Best that froze her in time. Starring opposite Robert Young, still the epitome of the paternal sitcom figure, Wyatt's Margaret provided the calming presence for the show's three children, best known by the nicknames Bud (Billy Gray), Princess (Elinor Donahue) and Kitten (Lauren Chapin).
True, life was never as simple as it appeared on Best -- and life was not quite as simple on Best as we now tend to remember. But it did seem simpler when Wyatt was in charge than it so often does today.
An entire generation of Kittens, Buds and Princesses will miss her.
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