Melissa Francis was a child actress who started when she
was just baby in a commercial for Johnson & Johnson, but she is best
known for her role as Casandra Cooper Ingalls on the beloved TV series
Little House on the Prairie.
She loved acting, and on the
surface, appeared to live a charmed life, but behind the scenes, her
success was fueled by the pride, pressure, greed and often cruelty by
her stage mother. As Melissa became more successful, her older sister
Tiffany was neglected and ignored by her mother. While the mother
eventually wears down both her daughters, Melissa is a survivor; she
does what she has to do to get through Harvard, and eventually finds her
calling in reporting the news; she is now an anchor on the Fox News
network. Tiffany was not so lucky, she doesn't have the same coping and
survival skills, and it ultimately leads to tragedy.






