Linda Henning

Linda Kaye Henning (September 16, 1944) is an American actress and singer who starred on the 1960s sitcom Petticoat Junction.

Early life
Henning was born in Los Angeles, California. The television producer Paul Henning, is her father, and her mother is Ruth Henning. In her youth, Linda Kaye Henning was a student of the ballet. While in her late teens, she turned her professional studies toward acting.

Career
Her earliest stage acting roles include: Roomful of Roses, The Reluctant Dragon, Rebel Without a Cause, Bus Stop, and Gidget. An early break in her career happened when she was cast as a dancer in the Columbia Pictures film Bye Bye Birdie (film) (1963). She has appeared in numerous musicals including Carousel (musical), High Button Shoes, Brigadoon (musical), Best Foot Forward, and The Sound of Music. Linda's singing talent was, from time to time used on Petticoat Junction. Her rich deep alto range was a stark contrast to her high pitched speaking voice. Linda often sang duets with co-star Mike Minor, who played Steve Elliott and married her character, Betty Jo, and later married Linda for real. She also sang often as part of a trio on the series with the Meredith MacRae and Lori Saunders who played her TV sisters, during the later seasons of the series.

Henning made many TV appearances during the 1960s and 1970s on a wide variety of programs. She has appeared in guest roles in many network television shows, including The Beverly Hillbillies, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Mister Ed, Green Acres, Happy Days, The Ed Sullivan Show, Adam-12, Mork and Mindy, The Mike Douglas Show, and The Tonight Show. She provided the voice of Jethrine Bodine on The Beverly Hillbillies, Jethro's sister, who was played by Max Baer, Jr., in drag during the 1962-63 season. She made dramatic appearances in Sliders, where she appeared in many episodes as Mrs. Mallory, Hunter (U.S. TV series) and Capitol (TV series). She was popular in game show appearances including Password (game), Tattletales, Hollywood Squares, The Perfect Match, Showoffs, Password Plus, Family Feud, The Match Game, and Three for the Money, as well as becoming a substitute hostess on the 1974~1976 daytime edition of High Rollers.

Her most notable role was as Betty Jo Bradley in the CBS series Petticoat Junction, which ran from 1963 until 1970. She was only one of three cast members, along with Edgar Buchanan and Frank Cady, to remain throughout the show's entire run and appeared in all but one of the 222 episodes (the exception being the season 1 episode "Bobbie Jo and The Beatnik"). She was billed on the series simply as "Linda Kaye" and would occasionally sign her photos with "Linda Kaye" in quotations and then Henning, along with Betty Jo in parentheses – ["Linda Kaye" Henning (Betty Jo)]. In a few episodes of the series, Henning's singing voice came to affect. These episodes are particularly found in later years, in which Henning and her television sisters (played by Meredith MacRae and Lori Saunders), would sing trios. The series was cancelled in 1970, due to declining ratings.

In 1968, a year after Henning's screen marriage to Mike Minor on Petticoat Junction, the couple married in real life. They were divorced in 1973 and had no children. Minor's father was the producer Don Fedderson.