What TV Character Had It Worse Than Mary Ingalls? None!

[saraharmstrong]

And on top of that, every time she got sad everyone told her “stop feeling sorry for yourself” 😂😂😂

[StrawberryXSquad]

Melissa is a great actor, it's hard to think she's not blind irl!!

[jeannemilne]

You forgot about her leaving to Chicago to see John Jr, to whom she was supposedly engaged, only to find out he no longer loves her.

[elgc]

Mary went blind from scarlet fever. She never married. Laura had a stillborn baby and had her house burn down right after. That's the truth from the book.

[JRFrancisco]

Always felt bad for her. Almost every episode she was getting picked on, bullied, yelled at, and crying. The hell?

[Leshay]

The episode when that crazy lady called her a Jezebel.

[emmawhite]

To make it worse, the real life Mary Ingles didn’t have half of what happened to her in the show. She did go blind but she never married. So she never lost a child in a fire. They did her character dirty. Though I take some comfort that it’s not real.

[calandramacann]

Albert had it way worse, abanded as a baby, abused at the orfaniage, feed for himself for years, has to live with the guilt of mistaking killing a woman and a baby, his Gf was raped and then died, was bulled, watched his little apoted brother get shot, almost was killed because of Mr Edward's drinking, drug addiction and then having his lifes dreams taken away because he dies.

[karleecraziness]

Season 2 Mary falls in love with John and in season 4 they get in engaged but he ends up breaking things for another woman. Season 3 she gets punched in the face by a bully but she returns the punch by socking him a good one

[Mitchellwilliam]

Oh she went thru IT…the infection, John Jr cheating on her in Chicago, trapped in a barn with wild dogs, going blind, baby k!lled in a fire….poor Mary 😢😢😢😢😢

[MeMyselfandI]

100% correct. For some reason they made her character have the worst things happen to her. Melissa Sue Anderson could cry 🫰🏻(snap) like that!! When she woke up blind and starts screaming for Pa!! oh my word!! And then when her baby dies and she breaks the window at Nellie’s hotel just like Mrs. Garvy breaking the window holding Mary’s baby at the blind school during a fire. Her acting was exceptional.

[chotzrary]

That's why she was the only one, out of the whole cast to be nominated for an Emmy. Melissa Sue Anderson did get an Emmy for acting on a ABC After School Special "Which Mother Is Mine?" Remember ABC After School Specials?

[deb]

She fought wild dogs in the barn loft, almost gets caught in a fire in the barn due to falling asleep while secretly studying and the stagecoach flips over trapping Adam and she had to traverse the prairie blind to find help.

[ruthcarter]

Melissa Sue Anderson is the only actor on Little House, who won an Emmy. I guess it was worth all the bad “stuff”. She earned it! 😊

[bluebrry_]

man this show had me cryin' when mary lost her other baby in the fire i was straight up BAWLING 😭

[aprilarlidge]

In real life, she went blind, did go to a blind school, but then lived with her parents until they died.

[stormy]

You're right! She's had more bad luck than any human.

[Tillythedevine]

i read the books as a kid. i'm now, as a 30 +, watching the series. I've been screaming WTF, almost every episode is traumatic AF 😪

[truethat]

The only time she had the main story line was when something bad was happening to her. 😮😂

[vickiwaatti]

Yes, Mary had scarlet fever as a child but, that is not what made her blind. Sources have now found that she had encephalitis and that is why she went blind. The illness caused her to have a stroke - this happened when she was 14. Also She never married nor did she ever have any kids in real life.