Ruth Foster

Foster was born on January 29, 1920, in Cincinnati, Ohio, as Ruth Emma Foerstel, the first child of George and Helen Wilhelmy Foerstel.^[1] She first broke into show business at the age of 12 when the Shubert Theater sponsored a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance contest. Foster competed and won first place. This exposure lead to a job as a dancer with a traveling dance group. Soon, she was offered a job as a dancer for the Latin Quarter Show. After several years of dancing, Foster went on to become an actress.

She traveled with vaudeville dance troupes in the early 1930s.^[2] Foster was on Ben Casey as Miss Fleming from 1962 to 1964. She was in Dimension 5 and Cyborg 2087 that were going to be released on television as television films, instead were theatrically released across the United States.^[3] Foster is most remembered as Melinda Foster, the Post office manager, on Little House on the Prairie for 61 episodes from 1974 to 1983. She was also a film editor, video tape editor and an associate producer. In 1984, Foster reprised her role as Melinda Foster in the Made-for-TV-Movies Little House: Bless All the Dear Children and Little House: The Last Farewell. Foster danced professionally in the Palm Springs and Branson Follies until the age of 85.^[2]

Foster married comedian Bobby Pinkus, a.k.a. Peter J. Accardy, in 1939. Accardy died on September 16, 1986.^[4][5] Foster died of natural causes in Del Mar, California at the age of 92.^[2] Several Little House cast-mates attended her funeral services.