While James Arness was undoubtedly the star of Gunsmoke, the show became the iconic 20-season stalwart that it was because of the memorable characters that surrounded Arness’ Matt Dillon. For the first half of Gunsmoke’s run, Dennis Weaver supplied laughs and heart as the amiable Chester.Though he was Matt’s trusted partner in keeping the peace and a friend to just about everyone in town, one area Chester always had trouble with was romance.
In the season one episode “Chester’s Mail Order Bride,” he decides to cut right to the chase and marry a woman he’s never met. After corresponding only through the postal service, she decides to come to Dodge. While this might seem like the best-case scenario, complications ensue — stemming from the fact that Chester sent Matt’s picture instead of his own. But Ann, the hopeful bride-to-be, has not been totally honest either.
Mary Carver plays Ann in her first of four appearances on Gunsmoke. Her last guest-starring role came seven years later in the episode “Daddy Went Away.” In that season-eight episode, she plays Lucy, another woman who falls for Chester but keeps some important information to herself.
Lucy arrives in Dodge with her daughter and Chester immediately takes to the poor widow. Marriage seems to be in the air as the two lovebirds see more and more of each other, even going to a dance together. But, just like Mary Carver’s first time wooing Chester on the show, dishonesty ultimately dooms the budding relationship.
Suzanne Cupito plays Lucy’s daughter, Jessica. She was all over 1960s television, appearing in The Twilight Zone, My Three Sons, Rawhide and The Andy Griffith Show as Opie’s crush in “Opie’s First Love.” She also played Baby June in the 1962 film adaptation of the musical Gypsy. But arguably her biggest claim to fame came years later under a different name! She has continued to act into adulthood using the stage name Morgan Brittany, most famously playing Katherine Wentworth in the ’80s primetime soap opera Dallas.