The 5 Main Actors Still Alive From The Cast Of Petticoat Junction

Part of CBS' popular rural universe (which included "Green Acres," "The Beverly Hillbillies," and more), "Petticoat Junction" takes a peek at life for the Bradley family: Mom, Kate (Bea Benaderet), who owns the whistlestop hotel The Shady Rest; Uncle Joe Carson (Edgar Buchanan), king of the get-rich-quick scheme; and Kate's three teenage daughters, tomboy Betty Jo (Linda Kaye Henning); bubbly and boy-crazy Billie Jo (Jeannine Riley, Gunilla Hutton, and Meredith McRae); and brainy Bobbie Jo (Pat Woodell and Lori Saunders). Together, they face down typical teenage troubles and take part in sometimes cornpone but always fun shenanigans. 

Sadly, this sweet and harmlessly goofy sitcom was visited by the specter of death before its network run concluded. Bea Benaderet passed away from cancer on October 13, 1968, right at the start of the filming of Season 6. "Petticoat Junction" avoided addressing this tragedy with a recasting. Instead, Kate takes up world travel, and Benaderet was replaced by June Lockhart as big-city doctor Dr. Janet Craig. The show lasted two more seasons before being a victim of CBS' "rural purge," a swathe of cancellations that occurred for an arguably dumb reason — the network decided to cut back on popular shows that had a less desirable audience demographic. Even worse, it was cancelled without a real series finale, making it one of those beloved shows that didn't get the ending it deserved.

Decades have passed by since "Petticoat Junction" pulled into the station for its final trip. But even though some of the show's older cast members have passed on, many of its younger stars are still among the living. Here's who's still up and kicking from the cast of "Petticoat Junction."

Lori Saunders was the last girl to take on the mantle of Bobbie Jo Bradley. In fact, she ended up playing the character for the majority of "Petticoat Junction's" run after Pat Woodell, the original Bobbie Jo, left the show at the end of Season 2. While Bobbie Jo was a brainy girl, Saunders loves to make people laugh, and she got her start in the Henningverse by playing one of Mr. Drysdale's secretaries on "The Beverly Hillbillies."

Yet there's a whole other side of Saunders' career as she made a big name for herself in exploitation and B-movies while she was working for CBS. Combining "Maura of the Wilderness" and "Blood Bath" with wholesome Hooterville antics may seem unusual, but she did it successfully. After the Shady Rest closed up shop, she appeared in fare like "Frasier, the Sensuous Lion" before becoming the wholesome Betsy in the western historical sitcom "Dusty's Trail."

Saunders has long been retired from acting, with her last role being in 1980's "Captive." She has an Instagram, which she hasn't updated since 2021, but on her account, she frequently posted and talked about her other passion: art and photography. A mother of two in a long-term marriage, she remains in contact with the public by appearing at conventions — most recently in December 2024 — usually alongside her fellow surviving Bradley sisters.

Betty Jo Bradley was a fun-loving tomboy who found herself thunderstruck by motherhood and romance, and her portrayer — Linda Kaye Henning — has never been one to shirk variety, either. Henning holds a special spot in "Petticoat Junction" history; her father is series creator Paul Henning, who encouraged his daughter to bill herself as "Linda Kaye" to avoid accusations of nepotism when she first entered the entertainment business. His joke was that she might be mistaken for Danny Kaye's daughter with her red hair.

Linda Kaye Henning quickly made a name for herself in the acting game, first in small bit parts, then by helping dear old dad out on his job. First, she voiced Jethrine Bodine (played by Max Baer Jr.) on "The Beverly Hillbillies," then she took up work as Betty Jo. "Petticoat Junction" brought a lot of personal joy into her life — she married Mike Miner, who played Betty Jo's husband, Steve Elliott. Though they divorced in 1973 and she eventually remarried, her early romance with Miner is forever fictionalized in Steve and Betty Jo's on-screen entanglement.

Henning became quite the character actor after "Petticoat Junction" closed shop. She was a regular on the soap opera "Return to Peyton Place" from 1972 to 1974, and she took up guest-starring roles on everything from "Mork & Mindy" to "Mad About You." Her most recent gig was a recurring role on "Sliders," where she played Amanda Mallory. Outside of the acting game, she worked as an advocate for cancer research at the San Fernando Valley Unit of the American Cancer Society. She continues to make public appearances with Lori Saunders and Gunilla Hutton at conventions.

With her Betty Boop-esque eyes, Jeannine Riley was the first woman to play the flirty Billie Jo Bradley for "Petticoat Junction." But her start in show business was fascinatingly fresh; she was a championship swimmer before joining the Hollywood game.

After her time on "Petticoat Junction" came to an end, Riley continued to appear on a variety of sitcoms in a guest-starring capacity. But she might be familiar to you from her other best-known role, playing a variety of parts in the long-lived sketch comedy series "Hee Haw." She also joined Lori Saunders in "Dusty's Trail," playing femme fatale Lulu McQueen, but the silver screen career she left "Petticoat Junction" for never quite materialized. Her biggest movie role was in the drive-in hit "Electra Glide in Blue," though she also appeared in Jerry Lewis' "The Big Mouth" and the dramatic Dick Van Dyke vehicle "The Comic." Which is a shame, because Riley was looking for something new to do. 

"I'm not knocking those shows. After all, they paid the rent," she told The Indianapolis Star, via MeTV. "But it's tough to get out of that rut." Typecasting or not, Riley kept on working through 1991 and appears to be enjoying a peaceful retirement; in 2020 she authored a book about aging with zest — "The Bolder Woman: It's About Time" — and keeps her official website active as well.

Gunilla Hutton took over for Jeannine Riley as Billie Jo and ended up guiding the character through a major change, turning her from a bubblehead to a self-possessed, driven woman. A similar kind of self-confidence helped get Hutton through the ups and downs of Hollywood life.

Hutton had a few minor appearances in dramas like "Burke's Law" before debuting as Billie Jo; afterward, she appeared in a bundle of dramas and comedies as a guest star before becoming a Hee Haw Honey herself. She remained with the show for decades, finally hanging up her short-shorts in 1992. Outside of "Hee Haw," her final acting roles came via "Fantasy Island," where she played Lady Godiva. Movie-wise, she appeared in the spoof "Love Can Hurt You" and the sex comedy "Swim Team."

Though Hutton doesn't have a social media presence, she, too, continues to appear at conventions with Linda Kaye Henning and Lori Saunders.

June Lockhart was already a television legend when she stepped up to the unenviable task of replacing Bea Benaderet as the female lead of "Petticoat Junction." Dr. Janet Craig was something fresh in the valley: a blatantly feminist role model and an older woman, to boot. A consummate pro, Lockhart did her level best to keep the train rolling down the track for two seasons until the show ended.

Of course, by the time Lockhart joined the show's cast, she already had a stellar career behind her. She started out as a teen actress whose parents had their roots in vaudeville. Lockhart landed parts in classic movies like "Meet Me in St. Louis" and "All this and Heaven, Too," and leading roles in time-tested series like "Lassie" and "Lost in Space" as moms Ruth Martin and Maureen Robinson, respectively. Lockhart is, in fact, one of only four still-living actors from "Lost In Space."

She alternated voiceover work with guest-starring roles once "Petticoat Junction" ended, appearing in everything from the Pia Zadora bomb "Butterfly" to soaps like "Falcon Crest" to cult hits like "Trolls" and "C.H.U.D. II: Bud the Chud." She also recurred as Mariah Ramirez, grandmother of Felicia Jones (Kristina Wagner), on "General Hospital" for decades. All of that hard work earned her two Emmy nods and a Tony win, scoring a statue in 1948 for outstanding performance by a newcomer for her role in "For Love Or Money." Her latest credit is for a voiceover role on Netflix's take on "Lost in Space" in 2021, after earlier appearing as a teacher in the Matt LeBlanc-starring 1998 flop film remake. Now happily retired, the actress will mark her hundredth birthday on June 25, 2025.