She Played Timmy’s Mom on “Lassie.” See This Legendary Actress Now at 98.

She won the hearts of American viewers in the 1950s, as the soft-spoken, always-patient mother on one of the most wholesome and most long-running family dramas on television.

She was warm, composed, and strong, but in a quiet way, the epitome of the ideal mother in an era when television was trying to reflect and support traditional values. However, her contribution would not

be limited to that one part only, as she would become one of the most well-known and admired actresses in the history of television.

Her life starts long before she appeared on the small screen. She was born in a family of successful actors, so she was practically predetermined to become an entertainer. She made her first appearance as

a child in the 1938 MGM version of A Christmas Carol, in which she was cast with her actual parents, Gene and Kathleen Lockhart, who were also well-established actors in their own right.

Her innate talent was already apparent even at that time and it did not take long before she established her own unique niche as an actress.

It was not until two decades later that she would have her first big break in the limelight, when she took over the role of Ruth Martin, the loving mother of a young boy named Timmy on the popular show Lassie.

The show ran between 1958 and 1964 and it depicted the life of a small town through the eyes of a boy and his dog, yet it was her down-to-earth performance that gave the series its emotional depth and stability.

She had a genuine motherly touch that appealed to the audience on a very personal level, with many viewers developing a sort of second mother complex around her, a reassuring presence that could make any problem look solvable.

But unlike most actors of the time who were typecast, she did not want to be limited to one archetype. She later made a daring transition into science fiction, in which she played Dr. Maureen Robinson in the cult-hit Lost in Space in the mid-1960s.

In 1965-1968, she played the role of the intelligent, courageous matriarch of a family that was stranded on a distant planet, combining the wisdom of a mother and the scientific knowledge. Her work

contributed to redefining the role of a female character on TV, not only caring, but also intellectually powerful and emotionally complicated.

She was able to cross genres and decades and survive in an industry that is notoriously fickle. She was a guest star in shows like Bewitched, Petticoat Junction, Magnum, P.I., Step by Step, and Beverly Hills,

90210, which showed her great versatility and timelessness. She was as at ease in light comedies in sitcoms as she was in tense dramas.

She also took a second home in the daytime television, where she featured in almost 40 episodes of General Hospital. She was featured in an episode of Grey Anatomy in 2006, which took her legacy to a

new era of television. She appeared in the 2007 ABC Family film Holiday in Handcuffs, and in 2016 appeared in The Remake, an independent film, demonstrating her dedication to acting into her nineties.

But her abilities did not end on the screen. In 1948, she won a Tony Award in the category of Outstanding Performance by a Newcomer,

in the Broadway play For Love or Money. Her success on the stage proved what the television and film had already established, she was a master of her craft in any medium.

Behind the scenes, she was fascinated with space exploration all her life. An ardent NASA enthusiast since the 1970s, she frequently addressed the issue of scientific accomplishment and the need to

encourage young people to aim high in the sky in her speeches. She was awarded the NASA Exceptional Public Achievement Medal in 2013 in recognition of her advocacy, which is unusual to an individual in the entertainment industry.

Her personal life was not so publicized but it was rich as well. She was married twice; first to John F. Maloney, and had two daughters, June Elizabeth and Anne Lockhart. Anne followed the steps of her mother and became a successful actress herself.

She later married John Lindsay, and the marriage did not last but she was a good mother and grandmother. Family customs, like watching A Christmas Carol, the film that actually started her career, were still a significant part of her life.

She was still a spirit even when she was nearing the century mark. In an interview with The Daily Item in 2015, she was humble and grateful as she recalled:

I have had a lot of chances that fell in my lap over the years and I am glad I was up to them. I would say 90, gosh, that is old. However, I am 55. I am quite lucky to be still active and working.”

She is still a unique blend of grace, strength and flexibility at 98. Her memory is not only in the characters she portrayed, but in the generations she inspired, the boundaries she subtly broke and the comfort she brought to living rooms throughout America.