Little Rascals Actress Jackie Lynn Taylor Dies at 88

 by Mike Barnes

Everett Collection

Rascals in 1934 (from left): Tommy Bond, Matthew “Stymie” Beard, Tommy Bupp, Taylor, Albright, Jerry Tucker and George “Spanky“ McFarland.

She went on to work as a host and reporter for several TV stations in California.

Jackie Lynn Taylor, who played one of The Little Rascals in five Our Gang comedy shorts released in 1934, died Monday in the Sacramento suburb of Citrus Heights, Calif. She was 88.

Jack Fries, a former CBS journalist and TV anchor/producer, said his wife had Alzheimer’s disease, The Sacramento Beereported.

Taylor debuted as Jane, the “girlfriend” of gang leader Wally (Wally Albright), in Hi-Neighbor, an episode in which the youngsters decide to build their own fire engine. When she grew too tall, she was replaced by Darla Hood.

“We didn’t have scripts,” she told The Bee in 2000. “We played together. We were kids who worked together, who played together and who went to school together. We weren’t great actors, but we got along.”

She wrote a 1970 book about the Rascals, The Turned-on Hollywood 7, and co-hosted along with Fries The Little Rascals Family Theatre , which aired on TV in the 1970s and was a big hit.

A native of Compton, Calif., Taylor also appeared in Our Gang producer Hal Roach's Laurel & Hardy films The Devil's Brother (1933) and Babes in Toyland (1934).

Later, she worked at KTTV in Los Angeles as one of the first female TV co-hosts in Southern California. She went on to host shows or work as a reporter in such California cities as Bakersfield, Tulare, Stockton, Salinas and Sacramento.

Her first husband was actor and drama teacher Ben Bard.

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