Waltons 4.13: "The Nurse"

Airdate 12/11/75

Mary Ellen applies to the School of Nursing at the University of Virginia, but she bombs the entrance exam because she never took Algebra or Chemistry. Devastated, she asks John-Boy for advice, who suggests she talk to Nora Taylor, the local nurse, currently helping the Basham family, whose mother is gravely ill. In exchange for tutelage, Mary Ellen helps Nora with her nursing by cleaning, cooling and helping out with the household – and consoling the children when their mother ultimately dies. Hamner tells us in the epilogue that Mary Ellen does indeed get accepted to the college, and begins classes that September.

Each Walton child gets ready to fly the coop, and now its Mary Ellen’s turn (although in the world of TV, they still stay at home). Dreams of acting and dancing are now officially just those, as nursing is what Mary Ellen (and the writers) have eked out as her vocation, and identity – coming greatly in hand once World War II gets underway.

Touching scenes involving the Basham family, a terribly impoverished, uneducated mountain brood that looks pretty real to me. Oldest Basham daughter Violet is played by Shannon Terhune but I’ll be damned if she’s not a dead ringer for a young Helen Hunt! You be the judge.