Meredith was the third actress to play Billie Jo and she didn't join the show until the fourth season, but she was the most memorable to play Kate Bradley's eldest daughter.
With her thick blonde hair, big brown eyes and perfect skin,Meredith was certainly an attractive woman, but her warm personality was what made her a hit with viewers from her very first scene.
Billie Jo ("Willimena Josephine") was one of the few characters on the show who left the valley to experience the real world.
She recorded songs and moved to New York to pursue a show business career. Meredith was a talented songbird with a recording contract, so the show's writers took advantage of her singing ability.
During the height of the show's popularity, the three Bradley daughters recorded several songs and toured as a club act. They wore flashier clothes than their "Petticoat Junction" apparel: mini-skirts and go-go boots.
Meredith told the website www.petticoat.topcities.com, "In a way, that was probably the most fun we had, was when we traveled. We just... were devils. We would order room service with hot fudge sundaes and things, and wine. We were all over 21 by then, and we just had a ball."
Meredith told Orange Coast magazine in 1983, "One good thing about 'Petticoat Junction', it gave me a chance to establish my identity in my own right, After Petticoat, I was no longer known as Gordon and Sheila's daughter, I was finally Meredith MacRae."
After the show was canceled in 1970, Meredith had a singing
career and then co-hosted an LA TV show, "Mid-Morning." She
created and hosted "Born Famous," a series of specials in whch
she interviewed children of famous parents.
The blonde beauty who was born in Houston was the only daughter to show biz parents Gordon and Sheila MacRae. Meredith appeared in her father's film "By the Light of the Silvery Moon," at age 9 in 1953. Her first
significant role was playing the beach babe "Animal" in the Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello movie "Bikini Beach."
She played Mike Douglas's girlfriend Sally Ann in "My Three Sons" for several years before "Petticoat Junction." "The FBI," "Rockford Files," and "Love American Style" were a few of the programs which she made appearances.
Meredith died of brain cancer at age 56 in 2000. Daughter Allison wrote on her website www.meredithmacrae.com that her mother "could practically embrace people with her eyes."
No. 16
Classic TV Beauties 1960s Countdown
MEREDITH MacRAE as Billie Jo Bradley in "Petticoat Junction"
