Jane Wyatt, RIP: Humane, Not Caricature

She made her most enduring name (and won three consecutive Emmy awards) on the television version of Father Knows Best; the original, radio version featured the future Wilma Flintstone (Jean Vander Pyl) in the Margaret Anderson role that soon became Jane Wyatt's property alone.

That didn't keep Wyatt, a likeable film actress before she became a likeable television star, from a classic radio presence. Most of it appears to have come by way of roles on Family Theater (Mutual): one guest shot in 1947, one in 1948, two in 1950 (including "The Lady With a Lamp," with Claudette Colbert and Robert Ryan), one in 1951, two in 1952, one in 1954, and one in 1955.

Wyatt, who died Friday in Bel-Air (her husband of 64 years died six years ago) played those roles with the affectionate dignity for which she became known as Margaret Anderson, neither overacting nor flattening them. In essence, she graduated from the well-bred ingenues of her early stage and film career into something more approachable without becoming something less humane.