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Ruth Martin [1958-1964], played by June Lockhart
Ruth makes her debut in the mid fourth season (1957) when she and her husband Paul buy the Miller farm and adopt Timmy. She is the daughter of a park ranger and spent many years as a girl at Yellowstone National Park. Ruth is the typical strong, level-headed "good mom" of late 1950s television in the fashion of Margaret Anderson in Father Knowns Best and Donna Stone in The Donna Reed Show. Like her TV "good mom" counterparts, Ruth has no aspirations beyond home and family. She participates good naturedly in Timmy's pigeon racing, coon dog racing, Sunday school carnivals, and 4-H projects. In one episode, she serves as Timmy's Cub Scout Den Mother, and, in other episodes, she travels with him to the Grand Canyon and the Air Force Academy. She is a literate woman, familiar with classical mythology and English authors such as Izaak Walton. The role was originally played in the fourth season by Cloris Leachman who quickly tired of playing a farm woman, and was replaced at the top of the fifth season by June Lockhart.
Left: June Lockhart as Ruth Martin.
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