A Phone Call Brought Melissa Gilbert Home. Years Later, She Learned the Full Story of Her Adoption

Before Little House on the Prairie, a Newborn Known as “Baby Girl Darlington” Became Part of a Show Business Family

Barbara Crane-Gilbert and her husband, Paul Gilbert, hadn’t been planning to adopt when Barbara received a phone call about a newborn who needed a home. Paul was away working, so Barbara called him to ask what they should do. His answer was simple. She should go get the baby.

The girl had been born in Los Angeles in May 1964 and was initially known as “Baby Girl Darlington.” Within about a day of her birth, she was in the care of the couple who would raise her. Ten years later, television viewers would know her as Melissa Gilbert, the young actress who played Laura Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie.

Gilbert grew up knowing she was adopted. The details of her arrival, including how suddenly Barbara and Paul had decided to bring her home, came to her in pieces. As an adult, she also learned that much of what she had been told about her birth parents was different from the lives they had actually led.

The Family Story She Grew Up Hearing

As a child, Gilbert understood that her birth mother had been an accomplished ballerina and that her birth father had been a Rhodes Scholar. She carried that account into adulthood, when she began looking for information about the people she had come from.

In her memoir Prairie Tale, Gilbert described eventually contacting her biological father, David Darlington, and traveling to Las Vegas to meet him. Darlington worked as a sign painter and had also raced stock cars. Her biological mother, Cathy Wood, had been a dancer. Wood died before Gilbert had the chance to meet her.

Gilbert also learned that Wood and Darlington each had three children from earlier relationships. In Gilbert’s account, the prospect of providing for a seventh child had figured in their decision to place her for adoption.

Meeting Darlington gave her details she had wanted for years, although the encounter felt different from the reunion she had imagined. She later described coming away with a clearer picture of her birth family and still having questions about her first day of life.

Barbara and Paul Hadn’t Been Looking to Adopt

Gilbert remembered hearing the story of the phone call retold at a family gathering. What stayed with her was how little advance planning there had been. Barbara and Paul hadn’t set out to adopt a child. The decision took shape when Barbara heard about the newborn and called Paul on the road.

The household the baby joined was already familiar with the demands of performing. Paul had worked in a circus, served in the Army Air Corps, and built a career that included comedy, music, and acting. His television appearances included The Ed Sullivan Show. Barbara had moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles and pursued acting herself.

Show business was part of the family’s working life long before Melissa became recognizable on television. Her own career would eventually make the Gilbert name familiar to an audience far beyond the one her parents had known.

Growing Up on Little House on the Prairie

Gilbert began playing Laura Ingalls when Little House on the Prairie premiered in 1974. Over the course of the series, viewers watched Laura grow from a spirited child into a young woman building a family of her own. The show ran through 1983, and Gilbert remained closely associated with the role long after it ended.

She was already taking on other parts during those years. In the television adaptation of The Miracle Worker, she played Helen Keller, with Patty Duke as teacher Anne Sullivan. Gilbert went on to act in films, television, and theater as an adult and later served two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild.

The work gave Gilbert a public life that began unusually early. Some of the most consequential things she learned about her family, however, came years after audiences had watched her grow up.

Two Personal Discoveries in Adulthood

Gilbert had been told as a child that Paul died from a stroke. She later said she was 45 when she learned that her adoptive father had died by suicide. The revelation changed her understanding of a loss she had lived with since childhood.

She has also spoken publicly about misophonia. In a conversation with Duke University’s Center for Misophonia and Emotion Regulation, she described how strongly certain everyday sounds had affected her from a young age. Having a name for that experience helped her make sense of reactions she had struggled to explain.

A Small House on 14 Acres in the Catskills

Decades after filming Little House, Gilbert and her husband, actor and director Timothy Busfield, found a small place of their own through a Zillow listing. The cottage sat on 14 wooded acres in New York’s Catskill Mountains. The land appealed to them immediately, and the house needed substantial work.

They bought the property for a reported $98,000 in early 2019 and set about making it habitable. The renovation included work on essentials such as heating and plumbing. Once they had settled in, gardening and raising chickens became part of the slower routine Gilbert had wanted.

She wrote about the move and the work that followed in her memoir Back to the Prairie. She also co-founded Modern Prairie with Nicole Haase, building a lifestyle venture and community where women can share stories, learn new skills, and talk openly about aging.

Viewers first got to know Gilbert through a character whose life was tied to a patch of land and the people who lived on it. When Gilbert wrote about the Catskills, she had a story of her own to tell, right down to the neglected cottage she and Busfield had to make livable before they could plant a garden or bring home chickens.