The F Troop co-star was 15 years old when she first auditioned for the sitcom.
Melody Patterson, the California-born actress best known for her portrayal of the spirited Wrangler Jane in the 1965 – 67 ABC sitcom F Troop, has died at age 66. Her passing was announced by her F Troop co-star Larry Storch, who posted Friday on his Facebook site: “It’s with a heavy heart that we can let you know our beloved Wrangler Jane, Melody Patterson passed away today. Our hearts are sad today. R.I.P. Sweet Melody. We love you.”
A western spoof set during the years following the Civil War, F Troop featured Ken Berry as Captain Wilton Parmenter, the gallant but clueless commander of Fort Courage, a frontier outpost where the amiably corrupt Sergeant Morgan O'Rourke (Forrest Tucker) and Corporal Randolph Agarn (Storch) schemed to make as much money through crooked wheeler-dealings as possible while paying little or no heed to military protocol. Patterson's Wrangler Jane was a straight-shooting spitfire with a romantic streak.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Patterson "auditioned for the part of Jane when she was just 15 (she had told the producers that she was 18). Her tomboy character, which ran the trading post in town, was smitten with the bumbling Captain Wilton Parmenter (Ken Berry), but he was too shy to acknowledge her affections... [Patterson] said that by the time producers realized she was not 18, the series was already on the air and doing well."