Laura Ingalls Wilder

Her mother Caroline was born December 12, 1839. Her father Charles was born in 1836. They were married February 1, 1860.

Her sister Mary Amelia was born January 10, 1865 (died 1928). Sister Caroline ("Carrie") born in August, 1870 (died june, 1946). Sister Grace Pearl was born May 23, 1877 (died 1941).

Born Laura Elizabeth Ingalls in Wisconsin in 1867, she spent her childhood as a "pioneer girl, " settling in Wisconsin (twice), Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota by the time she was twelve years old.

Had one brother named Charles Frederick Ingalls who was the fourth child of Charles and Caroline Ingalls. He was born Nov. 1, 1875 in Walnut Grove, Minnesota and died Aug. 27, 1876 in south of Troy, Minnesota.

Her family stayed in South Dakota, or Dakota Territory as it was known, and in 1885, she married Almanzo Wilder. She called him "Manly" and he called her "Bess". The following year, they had a daughter, Rose, later to become the author Rose Wilder Lane.

Her son, who was unnamed, died on August 10, 1889. He was only a few days old.

In 1894, the three of them left De Smet and traveled to the Ozark mountains of Missouri, where they settled in the town of Mansfield. Laura and Manly remained there for the rest of their lives.

These included a diary she kept detailing the journey to Mansfield in 1894, letters she wrote to Almanzo while visiting Rose in San Francisco in 1915, and even a new, unfinished "Little House" book, about the first four years after her marriage to Almanzo.

In the 1930's and 1940's, encouraged and aided by Rose, Laura set pen to paper and wrote a series of books about her childhood on the frontier.

Called the "Little House" books, they were published every year or so from 1932 to 1943, describing Laura's experiences from her earliest memories of the big woods of Wisconsin and the Kansas prarie to the golden year in which she married Almanzo. The books were immensely popular with children, for whom they were written, and adults alike.

Except for the occasional book tour, Laura's life as a farm wife in Mansfield still remained relatively unchanged, however, though she did recieve much more mail than she ever had before! She died in 1957, shortly after her 90th birthday. Even after her death, Rose found more of her writings.

Her major contribution to movies and television has been her books, for they were the inspiration for the long-running TV series "Little House on the Prairie" (1974-1983), and its various TV-movie sequels.

Inducted into the Hall of Famous Missourians, 1993.