Lucy Lee Flippin is a multidimensional performer with a degree in theater, film production and oral interpretation from Northwestern University. She spent a year as an ice skater in a Holiday of Ice touring company before honing in on an acting career and later studied acting with
Uta Hagen. Her acting career in New York City began with TV commercials and off-Broadway work, most notably Lincoln Center's 1975 production of
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), in which she played Helena (opposite
Richard Gere as Demetrius). The play closed after a two-month stretch. At one point or another the actress moved to Los Angeles at the advice of her agent and made her television debut in
The Bob Newhart Show (1972) and was later cast as Fran Castleberry, the title character's younger sister in
Flo (1980), and as the schoolteacher Eliza Jane Wilder in
Little House on the Prairie (1974). After having contributed her talent to several television and film projects throughout the years, she retired in 2008.