Patty Petersen

Patty Petersen was written into the cast of the Donna Reed Show as Trisha, an adopted child, shortly before Shelley Fabares left the series. She stayed with the show until it ended in 1966. She is the real-life sister of Paul Petersen, who portrayed Jeff Stone on the show. After several commercials and industrial films, she retired to raise her own family. Now known as Patti Petersen Mirkovich, she is the founder of an Internet company for novice authors and is also a teacher of computer studies for elementary and high-school students and also adults. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Donna Reed Foundation for the Performing Arts. She has two children, Tim and Melissa.