Was the Actress Who Played Mary Ingalls Really Blind?

Mary Ingalls on the TV show Little House on the Prairie played by actress Melissa Sue Anderson.  Despite her playing Mary Ingalls, who became blind in later seasons of the TV show, she was not blind in real life, as is shown in the earlier episodes of the television show where the character of Mary is clearly sighted.  However, as the show plays in reruns, some newer fans have only seen episodes where Mary is blind, leading to the confusion about whether the actress was blind.

She was widely acclaimed for her fairly accurate portrayal of a blind person during the era of the Ingalls and as her role as Mary Ingalls.  Melissa Sue Anderson continued to act in various television shows and movies after she left the Little House on the Prairie TV Show in 1981, playing sighted roles.

There are differences in how Mary Ingalls was on the show and what happened in life of the real Mary Ingalls, although becoming blind was one of the accurate ones.  For instance, the real Mary Ingalls never became a teacher or was married.