June Lockhart (1925–2025)

On earth or off, she was the greatest TV mother. The New York Times has an obituary.

The obituary quotes from a 2004 article about a lunch date with June Lockhart, Jon Provost, and HeyHey (a collie who played Lassie):

Here is a secret from those days, one that not even Ms. Lockhart knew when she was playing Ruth Martin: Some of the Lassie scripts came from writers who had been blacklisted after refusing to name names in the heyday of McCarthyism and the House Un-American Activities Committee.

She mentioned Adrian Scott, one of the Hollywood 10 who went to prison for contempt of Congress. His wife, writing as Joanne Court, attended story conferences and gave her husband notes so he could do rewrites. She also mentioned Robert Lees, who was listed in the credits as J.E. Selby....

“So when people come up to me and say, ‘Well, sure wish we had wonderful American shows like that the way we used to in the 50’s,’ I say, ‘Let me tell you who wrote those scripts,’” Ms. Lockhart said. “Yes, they were good Americans, and they were in jail.”

It ought not to be surprising that ProPublica is one of three organizations chosen for donations in June Lockhart’s memory. The others: the Entertainment Community Fund and Hearing Dogs for Deaf People.

Something that probably ought to be surprising: June Lockhart loved rock music. Parade reports that she took Billy Mumy and Angela Cartwright (both of Lost in Space ) to the Whisky a Go Go, threw a Halloween party with music by Hour Glass (a pre-Allman Brothers band with Duane and Gregg Allman), and regretted not getting to meet David Bowie.

I’ve been a Lassie fan from childhood’s hour, or half hours. The greatest June Lockhart-centric episode of them all: “The Big Cat,” in which Ruth Martin makes spare ribs, gets caught in an animal trap, communicates with Lassie by forming the letter C with her hand, and shoots and kills a cougar, all in less than twenty-one minutes.

Here’s what Jon Provost has written about his TV mother.