Was Melissa Francis on Little House on the Prairie?

Melissa Francis is best known as a commentator on Fox News, and on CNBC prior to that.  But she got her best known career start on Little House on the Prairie, where she portrayed Cassandra Cooper Ingalls for two seasons.

She portrayed a sibling to Jason Bateman’s character on the show.

She appeared as Cassandra Cooper for 21 episodes of the show, ultimately departing when her show family was leaving town, as the series transition to Little House: A New Beginning, where her Charles Ingalls-centric family would no longer be appearing.

Melissa’s character is first introduced during season seven in The Lost Ones (Part One) when she and her brother James are orphaned.

Her final appearance on the series was on the episode He Was Only Twelve (Part Two) during season eight, coinciding with the change to Little House: A New Beginning.