Who was that blonde?

This morning I saw Melissa Francis on the Today Show. How many of you are saying, “Holy Toledo! You are kidding. I have been wondering what happened to her, like, forever!” Okay. If you know her name, chances are you don’t work the word ‘like’ into your conversations.

Melissa Francis is a journalist, news reader, however you want to say it, for CNBC and apparently, filling in on  NBC.  She is a very attractive blonde in her late thirties. The little snipit that I saw her do, I was not totally turned off by her, unlike several of the newbies I have seen on GMA lately .

Now, here is what I want you to do…digress her age to about 8 or 9. Darken her hair to my color. Now, put a shin length calico dress on her. Who do you get. No! Not Melissa Gilbert, younger.

Missy Francis played adopted sister to Laura, Mary, Carrie and Grace. Her name was Cassandra Cooper. Her parents were killed in a (really) horrible wagon accident that she, along with her brother, Mr. Ingalls and his adopted son, Albert, watched from the bottom of a steep hill, the likes I have not seen on the prairie (ever).  Long (two-episode) story short, the Cooper children came to live with the Ingalls’, in a house I did’t think they could squeeze anyone else into (it was lucky Laura got married when she did).

So anyway, for the next season or so, we were subjected to Cassandra’s weird whining. When I heard that she had become a newscaster, I was concerned. I just knew that I would not be able to listen to, let alone, watch her talk about serious things. I was wrong. She wasn’t bad.

Here is a little bit of trivia to leave you with… Who played brother James Cooper to Melissa Francis’ Cassandra Cooper?

Have Fun Searching!!!