Grace Pearl Ingalls Dow (May 23, 1877 – November 10, 1941) was the youngest child of Caroline and Charles Ingalls and the youngest sister of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the author of the “Little House on the Prairie” series.
Biography
Grace Ingalls was born on May 23, 1877, in Burr Oak, Iowa. After completing her public school education, she pursued training to become a schoolteacher. Once she completed her studies, Grace began teaching in Manchester, South Dakota, a small town seven miles west of De Smet, where her family had settled.
On October 16, 1901, Grace married Nathan William Dow in the parlor of her parents’ home in De Smet. In addition to being a farm wife, Grace also engaged in journalism later in life, working as a correspondent for several local newspapers, much like her older sister Carrie. Following the deaths of their parents, Grace and Carrie took care of their eldest sister, Mary, who was blind.
Grace Ingalls Dow passed away on November 10, 1941, in Manchester, South Dakota, at the age of 64, due to complications from diabetes. Diabetes was prevalent in the Ingalls family, and Grace was the first of the Ingalls siblings to succumb to the disease. Her sisters Laura and Carrie also later died from diabetes-related complications. Grace and her husband are buried near the Ingalls family plot at De Smet Cemetery in De Smet, South Dakota. The couple did not have any children.
In the Media
Grace Dow has been portrayed in various adaptations of “Little House on the Prairie“:
- Uncredited children initially, and later by twins Wendi and Brenda Turnbaugh, in the television series Little House on the Prairie.
- Courtnie Bull and Lyndee Probst in the miniseries Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
