Mary Ingalls Blindness

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Mary_Gail_36

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I just came across this article regarding Mary Ingalls, from the Little House series of books and the TV show.

fox8.com/2013/02/05/mary-ingalls-blindness/

Here’s a snip.
Dr. Beth Tarini, one of the co-authors of the paper, became intrigued by the question as a medical student.
“I was in my pediatrics rotation. We were talking about scarlet fever, and I said, ‘Oh, scarlet fever makes you go blind. Mary Ingalls went blind from it,’” recalls Tarini, who is now an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan. My supervisor said, “I don’t think so.”
Tarini started doing research. 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. What they found was intriguing.
In Wilder’s unpublished memoir, “Pioneer Girl,” there is no reference to Mary having scarlet fever the year she went blind. (She did have scarlet fever when she was much younger.) “She never says scarlet fever. She never says rash,” Tarini says, pointing out the rash is a telltale sign of scarlet fever.
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The entire article is very interesting, you learn something new every day.
 
Interesting article. I’ve been a Little House fan for quite some time 🙂
 
I love Little House on the Prairie and I have the series on DVD. 🙂 I always wondered how that happened to her all of sudden.
 
Interesting! Thanks for the link. I always wondered about that too.
 
In the book “Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder” by Donald Zochert, it tells how Mary had had seizures and headaches and woke up one morning with her face pulled out of shape and that Laura’s mother said that Mary had had a stroke. And that as she recovered and got stronger, her eyes grew weaker.

There’s a lot that was condensed in the books and movies. There was even a story that Laura told when they lived in Burr Oak, Iowa (which is where their only brother, Freddie, was born and died) where a neighbor lady tried to convince Laura’s mother to give Laura up for adoption to the lady because she wanted a little girl now that her own daughter was grown and gone. Laura never referred to it in her books because the entire time they lived in Burr Oak was one of the lowest times in their lives.
 
bluerose said:
In the book “Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder” by Donald Zochert, it tells how Mary had had seizures and headaches and woke up one morning with her face pulled out of shape and that Laura’s mother said that Mary had had a stroke. And that as she recovered and got stronger, her eyes grew weaker.

There’s a lot that was condensed in the books and movies. There was even a story that Laura told when they lived in Burr Oak, Iowa (which is where their only brother, Freddie, was born and died) where a neighbor lady tried to convince Laura’s mother to give Laura up for adoption to the lady because she wanted a little girl now that her own daughter was grown and gone. Laura never referred to it in her books because the entire time they lived in Burr Oak was one of the lowest times in their lives.
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I wonder if she alluded to this story in “The First Four Years” when she had baby Rose, and then Mr. and Mrs. Boast asked Almanzo and Laura if they could keep the baby because they could not have children.

I didn’t know that Laura had a brother in real life. I thought that episode on the TV show was poetic license on Michael Landon’s part. Melissa Gilbert had great acting skills, she always got me crying when she ran away to go closer to God so He could hear her prayers better.
 
Mary_Gail_36 said:
I wonder if she alluded to this story in “The First Four Years” when she had baby Rose, and then Mr. and Mrs. Boast asked Almanzo and Laura if they could keep the baby because they could not have children.

I didn’t know that Laura had a brother in real life. I thought that episode on the TV show was poetic license on Michael Landon’s part. ** Melissa Gilbert had great acting skills, she always got me crying when she ran away to go closer to God so He could hear her prayers better**.
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Yes, she was just the cutest little thing. 🙂
 
My family got tired of the show when Michael Landon started crying every episode.
It was kinda funny when he told Lara not to lie and then goes and lies five minutes later.😃
 
I hated the television show. Yes, it was “decent” and “clean,” but it was so inaccurate.

E.g., Pa (Landon) didn’t have whiskers. This is sacrilege! In Little Town on the Prairie, the family attends a hometown show, and it appears that Pa has shaved off his whiskers to be in the show. Ma is visibly upset over the very possibility that Pa shaved his whiskers! Those whiskers were part of Pa forever! How dare Little Joe lose them for his show?!

E.g., the girls and boys sat together in the school, whereas at that time in history, boys sat on one side and girls on the other side. In fact, making a boy sit on the girls side was used as a disciplinary action by the teacher.

This list goes on and on. It was a charming show, and safe as a church, but it wasn’t about the Ingalls family.

For years, I have wanted someone to write/produce a screenplay based on The Long Winter, and really do it right, with all the details accurate. A book, The Children’s Blizzard, by David Laskin, gives a lot of details about the historic blizzard the claimed the lives of so many children. This book, and others, could be used to flesh out the storyline and make sure the “facts” are correct. It’s interesting how much this book lines up with what Laura wrote in her book. It’s absolutely the best of the Little House books, and would be great on the big screen.
 
Cat said:
I hated the television show. Yes, it was “decent” and “clean,” but it was so inaccurate.

E.g., Pa (Landon) didn’t have whiskers. This is sacrilege! In Little Town on the Prairie, the family attends a hometown show, and it appears that Pa has shaved off his whiskers to be in the show. Ma is visibly upset over the very possibility that Pa shaved his whiskers! Those whiskers were part of Pa forever! How dare Little Joe lose them for his show?!

E.g., the girls and boys sat together in the school, whereas at that time in history, boys sat on one side and girls on the other side. In fact, making a boy sit on the girls side was used as a disciplinary action by the teacher.

This list goes on and on. It was a charming show, and safe as a church, but it wasn’t about the Ingalls family.

For years, I have wanted someone to write/produce a screenplay based on The Long Winter, and really do it right, with all the details accurate. A book, The Children’s Blizzard, by David Laskin, gives a lot of details about the historic blizzard the claimed the lives of so many children. This book, and others, could be used to flesh out the storyline and make sure the “facts” are correct. It’s interesting how much this book lines up with what Laura wrote in her book. It’s absolutely the best of the Little House books, and would be great on the big screen.
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I used to wonder about the whiskers as well.

I think the reason that Michael Landon didn’t have whiskers is probably the same reason that there would be a scene of Michael Landon without a shirt every other episode. Michael Landon was considered handsome by many, especially after his role of Little Joe.

Also, perhaps since it started in the early 70’s beards might have been seen as too “hippy.” Mr Edwards had the beard, and his character was a bit rough around the edges. Perhaps they wanted Charles to seem more refined? I cannot really think of a contemporary actor on tv with a beard…even Rob Reiner didn’t have a beard from All in the Family.

I liked the show…but it was just loosely based on the books.

Some things did not make sense…Albert being adopted and then sharing a bedroom up in the loft with Laura. I know they had a small house, but really?

How Charles would save the day every episode. How Harriett Olson was just so horrible all the time…

Also, Laura’s wedding was all wrong.

The book had her marry in a black dress. The reason was Ma was sewing a new dress for Laura, and it was black. Ma was concerned about getting another dress finished, and worried about the idea, “Married in black, wish you were back” Laura was more practical, the black dress would be ready in time, and that’s what she would wear.
 
Cat said:
I hated the television show. Yes, it was “decent” and “clean,” but it was so inaccurate.

E.g., Pa (Landon) didn’t have whiskers. This is sacrilege! In Little Town on the Prairie, the family attends a hometown show, and it appears that Pa has shaved off his whiskers to be in the show. Ma is visibly upset over the very possibility that Pa shaved his whiskers! Those whiskers were part of Pa forever! How dare Little Joe lose them for his show?!

E.g., the girls and boys sat together in the school, whereas at that time in history, boys sat on one side and girls on the other side. In fact, making a boy sit on the girls side was used as a disciplinary action by the teacher.

This list goes on and on. It was a charming show, and safe as a church, but it wasn’t about the Ingalls family.

For years, I have wanted someone to write/produce a screenplay based on The Long Winter, and really do it right, with all the details accurate. A book, The Children’s Blizzard, by David Laskin, gives a lot of details about the historic blizzard the claimed the lives of so many children. This book, and others, could be used to flesh out the storyline and make sure the “facts” are correct. It’s interesting how much this book lines up with what Laura wrote in her book. It’s absolutely the best of the Little House books, and would be great on the big screen.
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I wasn’t born when that show was originally on…never liked it…but I have loved the books for years (except never read Farmer Boy or First Four Years). I wish they would do a REAL movie about her life…and not a fake one.

I loved THE LONG WINTER the most (and it would be the first I’d buy for my kindle the moment it came out on Ebook format…if they ever do 😦 )

They gave mr edwards a name in the series…he never had a first name that Laura knew about. They also married Mary off…she did not marry anyone…she remained at home after she returned from her college in Iowa. They had the Ingalls family adopt some orphans…that was entirely fictional as well.

Interesting information…it would make more sense that perhaps she did have some sort of stroke that caused her to eventually go blind, but Laura wrote in By the Shores of Silver Lake that it had been the fever that had caused it.

I’ve been to De Smet, South Dakota (The Long Winter); Pepin Wisconsin (Where she was born). and Walnut Grove, Minnesota where On the Banks of Plum Creek took place.
 
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