Where Is Grace Ingalls Now? Why Wendi and Brenda Turnbaugh Vanished From Acting After ‘Little House on the Prairie’
The twins starred as Baby Grace on ‘Little House’ for 4 years but quit acting right after
Key Takeaways
- The actresses who portrayed Grace Ingalls on 'Little House' left acting
- Wendi and Brenda Turnbaugh left the series after Season 8 and began kindergarten
- Wendi occasionally makes an appearance in the spotlight, while Brenda keeps a low profile
When you think of the Little House on the Prairie sisters, Laura, Mary and Carrie Ingalls likely come to mind first as they were part of the show from the very beginning. However, there was another Ingalls sister that joined the show in its fifth season, Grace Ingalls, who was the youngest.
Born 10 years after Laura in real life, Grace was portrayed by real life twin sisters Wendi and Brenda Turnbaugh, who booked the role at just 8 months old.
But when their time on Little House on the Prairie came to an end, the actresses left acting behind, neither of them appearing in any other project. Learn more about what happened to Wendi and Brenda after they left the show and what they’ve been up to since!
Wendi and Brenda are cast in the role of Grace
When the Turnbaugh twins were just babies, they landed the role of Grace Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie—a part casting directors had struggled to fill until Wendi and Brenda came along.
“My mom brought my sister and I in to meet Michael Landon and the first thing that happened was that Michael got on the floor with us,” Wendi Turnbaugh shared. “He played with us for about three minutes and we were crawling all over him and he looked up at her and said, ‘These are my girls. They’re going to be the perfect baby Grace Ingalls.’”
Since the twins were very young when filming began, the role of Grace was minor, with only a few moments focused on her character throughout the series. She was introduced primarily to reflect the real-life Ingalls family on screen rather than to add a new narrative voice.
Grace leaves ‘Little House’
After Season 8 of the series, many of the characters departed so that the show could focus on a storyline surrounding Laura and her family. One of them was Grace, who also didn’t return for the series finale.
By the time Season 8 wrapped up, Brenda and Wendi had reached the age where they could begin attending school, so that’s what they did. The twins traded in their days in the spotlight for something a bit more traditional and started kindergarten.
“My sister and I left acting and went on to kindergarten, the best parenting decision my mom ever made,” Wendi wrote in 2025. “Leaving Hollywood allowed us to live ordinary, full lives. The only drawback was that we lost contact with our Little House family, but with time, we were reunited once again.”
Where are Brenda and Wendi today?
Although both twins, now 48, concluded their acting careers as toddlers, Wendi has continued to step into the media spotlight, returning for certain Little House fan events.
In 2015, Wendi was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She had it removed shortly after, but the experience inspired her to share her story of faith and recovery in the book, Prairie Devotional, which was released in 2019. Since then, she’s continued to write and has released two more books: Red Tail Feathers: Dare to Discover the Beauty of Grace (2023) and Story by Story: A Journey Into the Gospels (2025).
Wendi married her husband, Joshua Lee, in 1999 and the couple have a son and a daughter together. Brenda married her husband, Adam Weatherby, in 1996 and they also have two children.
Unlike her twin sister, Brenda has kept her life largely private, staying out of the spotlight since her time on Little House. But despite their cutting ties with Hollywood, both have shared how grateful they are for the opportunity to portray Grace and to be a part of such a beloved story.
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