Little House On The Prairie: Then & Now

Diary of a Stage Mother’s Daughter

Melissa Francis’ revelatory autobiography offered some stunning details about her childhood. In Diary of a Stage Mother’s Daughter: A Memoir, Francis outlined the painful struggles she had to overcome with an abusive mother – one who threw tantrums and experienced depressive episodes, who threw her daughters out of the family car multiple times, who had their neighbor’s dog put to sleep out of spite, and who stole her children’s TV earnings. Rather than let this terrible upbringing keep her down (as did her sister, who turned to alcohol), Francis says she grew stronger from the experience and became even more motivated to succeed.