Hersha Parady, the actress best known for her role in “Little House on the Prairie” as Alice Garvey, has died at the age of 78.
She died in Norfolk, Virginia, on Wednesday after battling a brain tumor. The same news was informed by her son Jonathan Peverall to Today.com and The Hollywood Reporter.
After opening about Hersha Parady’s condition on a GoFundMe page, Peverall created a page to raise funds for his mother’s care.
He raised $20,482 at that time. Peverall said that her mother was suffering from meningioma.
This tumor arises from the meninges, which are the membranes surrounding the spinal cord and brain. As per the Mayo Clinic, meningioma is the most common type of tumor originating in the head.
Peverall was vocal about his mother’s condition and wrote that the illness had robbed his mother of her memory, her strength, and her vibrant personality. He continued by writing that she had largely become bedridden.
It was hard for him to see his mother like that, who was now struggling to do daily activities and who once was full of energy and life.
Peverall disclosed that he and his family were able to shift Hersha to their family home in Virginia. They tried to sort out the best care.
Peverall said,
“From moving expenses to in-home nursing care, to medical equipment and more, the financial burden is significant. And with a full-time job and three kids, providing her with the level of care she needs is difficult.”
Who was Hersha Parady?
Hersha Parady was born in May 1945 as Betty Sandhoff. She was a native of Ohio and claimed she was destined to be an actress from childhood.
As per the IMDb page, she made her debut in television with a guest role in the early ‘70s in an action-adventure series “Bearcats!.” Appearances followed her debut in other projects such as The Quest, The Waltons, and Mannix.
The actress became a household name on TV when she played the role of Alice Garvey in the TV family drama Little House on the Prairie.
She rose to fame in the late ‘70s after she joined the fourth season of this show and was seen alongside Merlin Oslne, the former NFL star. He played the role of Jonathan Garvey, her onscreen husband.
On this Emmy-winning TV series, she was seen from 1976 to 1980 and was a part of 35 episodes until her character got killed in the sixth season.
Her character died while attempting to rescue the son of Mary and Adam (Melissa Sue Anderson and Linwood Boomer played the roles) from a schoolhouse fire.
Her other co-stars in Little House on the Prairie include names such as Karen Grassle, Melissa Gilbert, and Michael London.
After her four years of work on the show Little House, Hersha Parady set her focus on the feature film stardom.
In the ‘80s and ‘90s, she was seen playing roles in Courage (a 1984 thriller), The Break (a sports drama released in 1995), Hyper Sapien: People from Another Star (a sci-fi flick released in 1986), and The Babysitter’s Seduction (TV film released in 1996).
As per IMDb, Hersha Parady played her last role in Product, a short comedy released in 2015.
