Lockhart died on Thursday of natural causes at her home in Santa Monica, family spokesman Lyle Gregory, a friend of 40 years, said on Saturday.

“She was very happy up until the very end, reading the New York Times and LA Times everyday,” he said.

“It was very important to her to stay focused on the news of the day.”

The daughter of prolific character actor Gene Lockhart, Lockhart was cast frequently in ingenue roles as a young film actor, but television made her a star.

From 1958 to 1964, she portrayed Ruth Martin, who raised the orphaned Timmy (Jon Provost), in the popular CBS series Lassie.

From 1965 to 1968, she travelled aboard the spaceship Jupiter II as mother to the Robinson family in the campy CBS adventure Lost in Space.

Her portrayals of warm, compassionate mothers endeared

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