Pat Woodell, Actress on ‘Petticoat Junction’, Dead at 71

Pat Woodell (second from left in above picture), one of the three original Bradley sisters on the 1960s sitcom "Petticoat Junction", passed away on September 29th at her home in Fallbrook, California. She had been battling cancer for two decades. Pat was 71.

Woodell played the clever brunette Bobbie Jo opposite Linda Kaye Henning (redhead tomboy Betty Jo) and Jeannine Riley (blonde boy-crazy gal Billie Jo), all daughters of Kate Bradley (Bea Benaderet), the owner of the Shady Rest Hotel near the town of Hooterville.

Petticoat Junction, which was created by Henning's parents Paul and Ruth Henning, debuted on CBS in 1963. Woodell departed the show after season two.

"I was going nowhere with it," she told the Chicago Tribune in 1971. She was replaced by Lori Saunders. The show lasted until April 1970.

Pat Woodell started out as a singer but would later sign a contract with Warner Brothers appearing in other TV shows like The Munsters, Cheyenne, Hawaiian Eye, The Gallant Men, and 77 Sunset Strip.

In the early 1970s, she toured with comedian Jack Benny, recorded an album and appeared in The Big Doll House (1971), a Roger Corman women’s prison film that starred Pam Grier.

She left acting in 1973.