Lauren Chapin

Personal life

Before, during and after Father Knows Best was in its original broadcast run, Chapin had a troubled childhood. Following the series' cancellation in 1960, Chapin later told a reporter in a 1983 interview:

I couldn't get a job. I'd been typecast as Kathy Anderson. The more I didn't work, the more my mother drank and the more belligerent I became. I started running away from home. I became an incorrigible child.

Previously, in 1981, a different publication noted that when opportunities in acting were scarce, Chapin secured employment in various capacities, including as a flight attendant, dog groomer, insurance claims examiner, carhop, and cocktail waitress.

Chapin married at age 16 and was divorced at 18. (An article published January 2, 1981, in The Washington Post says that she "separated from her husband within two years. They divorced five years later"). She became a drug addict, turned to prostitution to support her habit, and was sent to a psychiatric institution after she attempted suicide. In addition to using drugs, she sold them in San Francisco, California, and was arrested for forging a check in Hollywood, California. She acknowledged, "That was the beginning of several years in and out of jail."

Later career

In the early 1980s, Chapin taught natural childbirth and worked for a brokerage firm. In 1989 she co-authored with Andrew Collins the book Father Does Know Best: The Lauren Chapin Story. Currently, she manages singers and actors and performs in a live, interactive version of Father Knows Best for cruise lines, conventions, and other events. She is a licensed and ordained evangelist as well.