Mary Ingalls
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Mary Amelia Ingalls (January 10, 1865–October 20, 1928) was born near the town of Pepin, Wisconsin. She was the first child of Caroline and Charles Ingalls. She was the elder sister of famous author Laura Ingalls Wilder, who was best known for her Little House on the Prairie book series.
At the age of fourteen, Mary suffered an illness (depicted as scarlet fever in the Little House books, but as a stroke in her sister's unpublished memoirs) which resulted in lifelong blindness. Between 1881 and 1889, she attended the Iowa College for the Blind at Vinton, Iowa. Then she returned home to De Smet, South Dakota and lived with her parents until their deaths. Later, she lived with her sister Grace and then Carrie. Contrary to the character on the "Little House" television series, she never married. She died on October 20, 1928 at the age of 63, as a result of pneumonia and complications from a stroke. She was buried at De Smet Cemetery.
In the television series, Little House on the Prairie, which was based on her sister's books, she was portrayed by Melissa Sue Anderson (1974–1981), Barbara Jane Reams (1997) and Danielle Chuchran (2005).
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