# Wrangler Jane (Melody Patterson) has died

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wrangler-jane-melody-patterson-has-died/728937>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [August 26, 2015, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wrangler-jane-melody-patterson-has-died/728937 "2015-08-26T12:06:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wrangler-jane-melody-patterson-has-died/728937/1 "2015-08-26T12:06:40Z")

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I’m surprised that I haven’t seen this on the Boards yet. It was in the news yesterday. Melody Patterson has died at the not very advanced age of 66. The reports don’t say why, but she’s apparently been in poor health since breaking her back (!) some years ago.

> **[Melody Patterson, Who Played Wrangler Jane on ‘F Troop,’ Dies at 66](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/melody-patterson-dead-f-troop-816903/)**
>
> She started on the 1960s ABC series at just 15 and later married ‘Hawaii Five-0’ star James MacArthur.

I was surprised how young she started out – she was only 15 when she auditioned for her most famous role on **F Troop**. Her career was incredibly short. Except for a role in a straight-to-video flick in 1989, her career spanned only a decade, and started when she was 13-14.

> **[Melody Patterson - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0666321/)**
>
> Melody Patterson. Actress: F Troop. Melody Patterson was born on April 16, 1949 in Inglewood, California. She started performing at the age of four, appearing in "Mrs. McThing" at the Downey Community Theatre in Downey, California. She attended the...

In recent years she apparently started writing internet essays “Wrangling with Jane”.

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**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wrangler-jane-melody-patterson-has-died/728937/2 "2015-08-26T12:15:01Z")

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I never would have guessed she was a teenager during the early F-Troop run. RIP.

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**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wrangler-jane-melody-patterson-has-died/728937/3 "2015-08-26T12:22:30Z")

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I have heard that’s why Ken Berry wouldn’t kiss her.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wrangler-jane-melody-patterson-has-died/728937/4 "2015-08-26T13:36:33Z")

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Weird thing is that Pepper Mill was just telling me a couple of days ago (before the announcement of Patterson’s death) about how she landed the **F Troop** part while still a teenager by lying about her age (although even Pepper hadn’t realized just how young she was at the time). We hadn’t thought about Wrangler Jane for years before that.