I know that green lives matter and all but I would have thought that Melody, a/k/a F Troop's "Wrangler Jane," would have gotten some mention if only alongside Bat Girl - related posts.
I still don't understand why so many people went nuts when Elvis died. People got all syrupy over Robin Williams not too long ago. I never knew either of them. Heck, the closest I ever got to even meeting a real live celebrity was doing some work for a woman with the same name as Barbara Eden's sister. I didn't know Barbara Eden's sister's name until several years later so I had no reason to ask the women if she was related. I will probably never know. The sister has distinctive first and last names that I recognized when I saw her on a Bio Channel show about Barbara Eden. She has the same first and last names as the woman that I had met and she sure looked like the woman I had met several years before but seriously; How the heck would I know? Even so, that's closer than I ever got to knowing Elvis or Mork. I'll bet its closer than most of the people that got upset over their deaths ever got too.
I liked Donna Douglas but I saw her passing recognized on blogs that I read so I didn't see any reason to chime in. I obviously like Barbara Eden but its not a blond thing. I always liked Mary Ann better than Ginger, no matter whether Ginger was a blond or a redhead in the specific episode. Never was a big fan of Elizabeth Montgomery either. Nope. I liked Melody Patterson because Wrangler Jane was a different type of girl.
In F Troop, she ran her own store and could out ride and out shoot any man in town.
Some folks called her character Tomboyish but I never saw it that way. She always came across to me as self-reliant, capable and confident. There weren't nuthin' boyish, by the name of Tom or any other, about Wrangler Jane.
To any kid with a cowboy hat and two capguns (mine were in genuine tooled leather holsters), she was a dream.
Depending on what source you believe, Melody was only fifteen or sixteen years old when she won the Wrangler Jane role. They filmed F Troop's pilot episode while she was on Christmas Vacation from school. Supposedly, the producers didn't find out she wasn't eighteen until the show was already on the air.
After F Troop, Melody had a few roles in other TV shows, entertained the troops in Vietnam and was married to "Danno" for five years but its Wrangler Jane that I'll always remember.
I have not been able to find out what took her at such a young age. Just that she had not really recovered from breaking her back a couple of years ago and died in a nursing home of multiple organ failure. A tragic end for such an outgoing person.
Rest In Peace Melody.
