June Lockhart, beloved mother figure from ‘Lassie’, dies at 100

LOS ANGELES (AP):

June Lockhart, who became a mother figure for a generation of television viewers, whether at home in Lassie or up in the stratosphere in Lost in Space, has died. She was 100.

Lockhart died last Thursday of natural causes at her home in Santa Monica, family spokesman Lyle Gregory, a friend of 40 years, said Saturday.

“She was very happy up until the very end, reading the New York Times and LA Times every day,” he said. “It was very important to her to stay focused on the news of the day.”

The daughter of prolific character actor Gene Lockhart, Lockhart was cast frequently in ingenue roles as a young film actor. Television made her a star.

From 1958 to 1964, she portrayed Ruth Martin, who raised the orphaned Timmy (Jon Provost), in the popular CBS series Lassie. From 1965 to 1968, she travelled aboard the spaceship Jupiter II as mother to the Robinson family in the campy CBS adventure Lost in Space.

Her portrayals of warm, compassionate mothers endeared her to young viewers, and decades later, baby boomers flocked to nostalgia conventions to meet Lockhart and buy her autographed photos.

Offscreen, Lockhart insisted, she was nothing like the women she portrayed.

“I must quote Dan Rather,” she said in a 1994 interview. “I can control my reputation, but not my image, because my image is how you see me.

“I love rock ‘n’ roll and going to the concerts. I have driven Army tanks and flown in hot air balloons. And I go plane-gliding – the ones with no motors. I do a lot of things that don’t go with my image.”

Lockhart appeared in numerous films and television programmes, including All This, and Heaven Too; Adam Had Four Sons; Sergeant York; Miss Annie Rooney; Forever and a Day; Meet Me in St Louis; Son of Lassie; Lassie; Come Home; Petticoat Junction; General Hospital; Knots Landing; The Colbys and Bongee Bear and the Kingdom of Rhythm.

Lockhart was married and divorced twice: to John Maloney, a physician, father of her daughters Anne Kathleen and June Elizabeth; and architect John C. Lindsay.