Katherine MacGregor (born Dorlee Deane McGregor; January 12, 1925 – November 13, 2018) was an American actress, best known for her role as Harriet Oleson in Little House on the Prairie.[1] She started her career on stage in New York City, in theatres off and on Broadway, credited as Scottie MacGregor.
When she adopted the use of Katherine as her given name is unclear, but she switched from using ‘Scottie’ as she matured in age on the advice of her manager,[12] and was still credited for her film and television roles as Scottie MacGregor until an early 1974 two-hour episode of Ironside (which served as pilot for the short-lived Amy Prentiss).
Her first screen credit as Katherine MacGregor, and her best-known role, was from 1974 to 1983 in NBC's Little House on the Prairie as Harriet Oleson, the general store owner's wife and a comedic part.[13] MacGregor's favorite description of her character in Little House came in a fan letter from Minnesota in the 1970s, in which Mrs. Oleson was described as "the touch of pepper in the sweetness of the show". In 1979, due to the popularity of Little House in Spain, MacGregor was invited to Madrid, and appeared on RTVE's 625 Lineas and Ding Dong La Cocina programs.
After Little House on the Prairie, she withdrew from screen productions in favor of local theater. She dedicated herself to the Hindu religion, and to teaching acting to children at the Wee Hollywood Vedanta Players, before finally retiring in the early 2000s.[14] In 2014, she did an in-depth interview about her life and career for the book Prairie Memories by Patrick Loubatiere.[15]
Personal life and death
She was married to actor Bert Remsen from 1949 to 1950 and to actor, director, and teacher Edward G. Kaye-Martin, 14 years her junior,[16] from August 1969 to October 1970. She had no children.
While recovering from alcoholism, MacGregor converted to Hinduism.[17] She was unable to appear in the series finale of Little House on the Prairie, because she was on a pilgrimage to India at the time of the episodes' filming.[5]