Eddie, the clerk at the hotel, and I was having a drink in the saloon.  Eddie needed to talk to some one.  'Eddie's daughter' was on her way to North Fork. He was worried about what his daughter might think of North Fork and about him. Eddie and his wife had been divorced for fifteen years and he hadn't seen Lily since then.  He needed moral support.  He wanted me to be there when Lily arrived.  She was due in on the morning stage. 

That morning we waited patiently for the stage.  Eddie was nervous when the stage got here and when Lil stepped off the stage you could hear the townfolks gasp.  Her appearance was that of a hussy.  You could tell Eddie was surprised.  I nudged him to go and greet her.  He took his hat off and walked up to her.  "Miss Halstead?"  "What can I do for you sonny."  He told her he was her father.  I think she was more surprised with him then she was with her. "Maybe I can get use to the idea," she said sarcastically.  Eddie was hurt, he started to talk, then stopped.  I told them I would get her trunk, to go on ahead.  Eddie took her to the hotel and showed her to her room.  I took her trunk up to her room.  She was flirting.  She told me to call her Lil, most men do. I told her that the people here in North Fork take a little knowing.  She laughed.  She couldn't care less what anybody thought.  "What about your Father?  He's been lookin forward to seeing you."  "So he said.  Suppose you let me handle my father," she said.  "Eddie's been carrying around of picture of you for years.  It's yellow and it's faded but his memory isn't.  No matter what your like now, your still the girl in that picture to him."  She was bitter as she told me her mother died when she was seventeen.  She asked me where was her father then.  She blamed Eddie.  She remembers that girl in the picture too.  She remembers all the jobs she had and asks if I ever had to dance in a saloon.  "Where was my Father then?"  She wanted to know why he left her and her mother go.  She needed him now, that's why she was here.  Eddie would have been a lot better off if she would have just left things alone and had not had come to North Fork.    As I was going down the stairs of the hotel I overheard these two cowboys talking to Eddie.  They wanted to know what room Lil was in.  He told them to get out!  The one cowboy grabbed Eddie.  Shaking his finger at him saying, "Listen little man, I've been real nice to you.  Now are you gonna tell me where her room is or ain't cha'?"  I told him to leave Eddie alone.  I told them he was her Father.  He apologized to Eddie.  "I thought she was a dance hall girl he saw back in Laramie.  Now that I thought about it, she didn't look at all like her.  I'm awful sorry mister."  Then they left.  Eddie knew it was her.  That's how she found out where he was.  A fellow in Laramie told her.  He knew she blamed him for her kind of life.  He could see it in her eyes.  Hard, cold.  I assured him that she wasn't as hard as she seems. That it was all a bluff.  I told Eddie to take his face out of his books and bring her out to the ranch tomorrow night for supper.  We're having venison.  I told him I hadn't seen a women yet who wouldn't soften up to a small boy.  Two men rode into town looking for Lil.  Albie and Blanch, who had a previous encounter with Lil in Laramie,  had trailed her here to North Fork.  They knew that she was holding the money from a bank robbery.  They went to the Saloon to have a few drinks and to see what they could find out about Lil.  Sweeny told them that  Lil's Father was a clerk at the hotel.  Albie told Blanch that he better enjoy his drink now because it would be the last for a while.  He said that Johnny Delong would be here right now if he hadn't been drunk and got himself killed.  Eddie and Lil were in the lobby of the hotel getting ready to leave for our ranch when Blanch and Albie walked into the hotel.  She knew what they wanted.  They told her that Johnny was dead.  She knew that.  They told her she didn't belong in a town like this.  It just wasn't her style.  Eddie was confused.  He wanted to know if she was in some kind of trouble.  They told him that Johnny left someone pretty well fixed.  "Johnny and I were finished long before he died.  If he left anything to anyone it would be the first I heard of it," said Lil.  "Well, we'll be around close."  Walking away laughing.  Eddie asked Lil again if she was in trouble.  He wanted to help.  "That's what a Father is for," said Eddie.We had a nice super.  I left Mark and Eddie clean up the kitchen while I went to the barn to feed the cow.  Lil ask if she could come along.  "My Father says your not one to back away from trouble."  "Nor go towards it," I said.  I went about feeding the cow.  She told me that two men came to see her.  She used to work for one of them.  He wanted her back.  I asked her if she told Eddie?  "What good would he be?" She said.  She angered me because of her attitude toward her father.  I wanted to know what she was doing here.  What did she want?  She wanted to see the last of those men, Blanch and Albie.  I told her we have a Marshal in town.  She felt that would just stir up talk.  I told her she wasn't one to worry about talk.  She them approached me, "Those men are in my way.  They stand between me and the only kind of life I want.  You could be a part of that life Lucas.  It must be lonely for you.  She tried to kiss me.  "I watched you in there with the boy.  Your face was soft, kind, like a woman should look. Your a fake Lil, a pretty fake.  Your not gonna use me."  Then I pushed her away.  We went back to the house.  Eddie thanked me for a nice evening and then they left.    "Pa, what's a hussy?"  "Where did you hear anything like that Mark?"  "At school.  Some of the girls where tittering around.  You know how girls are."  "Uhhuh," I said.  "They were giggling and laughing about Miss Halstead being a hussy.  What's it mean?"  "Well Mark, ah, it means a worthless woman."  "You mean shiftless and no account?"  "That's right." "Well she ain't that, not Miss Halstead.  Well those girls, I'll tell them a thing or two."  "They were probably repeating something they heard son."  He just couldn't understand why anyone would want to say a thing like that about Lil.  I told him to come over here and sit with me.  "Name calling is a handy thing for some, Mark.  They smack a label on something and that's it as far as they are concerned.  It's kind of a special way of hating because they don't take the trouble to understand."  "Well, you have to put a label on something's, like a pickle jar," said Mark.  "That's right, but you be mighty sure there are pickles in that jar first.  Most time snap judgment can be cruel son. You better get to bed."  As he got up to go to bed he notice Lil had left her bag.  He wanted to see if we could catch up with her.  I reminded him she said she would be back tomorrow.  "Good night," said Mark. When Eddie and Lil got back to the hotel.  Lil went to her room.  Only to find that here room had been ransacked.  She didn't know that Albie and Blanch was still in the room.  "The only room in the entire hotel that smells of Lillie of the Valley," said Blanch.  They wanted the money.  "I'll spell it out for you, my dear.  Johnny Delong helped us to rob a bank, Johnny Delong carried the money and Johnny Delong died in your room," said Blanch.  She kept insisting she didn't know what they were talking bout.  Albie kept twisting on her arm, hurting her.  They didn't find any money, so where was it?  A knock came to the door.  It was Eddie. Lil told him to go away.  They opened the door and helped Eddie in.  He was confused.  He tried to find out what was going on.  Albie slapped him.  He held a knife to Eddie.  "The moneys at McCain's, it's in my handbag", said Lil.  Albie and Blanch made Eddie and Lil come back out to the ranch to get the money.  I heard them pull up.  I grabbed my rifle and went outside.  Blanch told me that Lil forgot her handbag.  He asked if I would fetch it for her.  Lil told me to give it to him.  Albie was hurting her Father.  "Give it to him, that's my Father," said Lil.  I threw it on the ground.  Albie went over to pick it up.  I hollered to Eddie, he grabbed Lil and they dropped to the ground.  I then shot Albie and had Blanch covered. "I was cold sober Albie, and it didn't make a bit of difference," said Blanch.  Eddie held Lil and told her it was alright.  Eddie went with Lil.  She had to be a witness at Blanch's trial.  So we saw them off.  "Hey Pa, what did you say was the name of that perfume she was using?"  "I think it's called Lilly of the Valley  Mark, why?"  "Golly it's nice, ya' know we could sure use some of that around the barn." 

---

hussy.....a bold or lewd woman.  Mischievous or ill-behaved girl.

Piddlin' stuff.....The dress that Lil wore to Lucas' for dinner, looks like the same dress Hanna Shaw wore in the beginning and the ending of the episode of "The Illustrator."

Gloria DeHaven played Lillian, Eddie's daughter in this episode.  She played Bess Shelby in the soap "Ryan's Hope."  She starred with Chuck in "Banjo Hackett: Roamin' Free" as Lady Jane Gray (1976).  She has appeared in many shows.  She was in show business since she was a child.  She was once married to actor John Payne.

Peter Whitney has starred in nine episodes of "The Rifleman."   'Eddie's Daughter' as Tracey Blanch.  He's the big dude. 'Mail Order Groom'  as John Jupiter.  He was the Mail Order Groom ~ the one that Jess Profit  (John Anderson) kept picking on.  'Heller' as Andrew Bechtel ~ the mean stepfather.  'Strange Town' as Ott.  'The Queue' as Vince Fergus - again he was the bully. 'Long Gun From Tucson' as  John Holliver.  'Lou Mallory' as  Neb Jackman.  'Gun Shy' as Vantine. 'Which Way'd They Go?' as  Ned Jackman - he played this character in two episodes and the father of this clan.  Another guest star on the "Untouchables."  He was on just about everything back then.  From "Superman" to "In the Heat of the Night."
Ray Teal played Albie.  He was Blanch's partner.  But I'm sure you would remember him best as the no-nonsense Sheriff Roy Coffee on Bonanza.  He was on that show for 12 years. (1960-1972)  He was one of the most versatile character actors in the business. In his almost 40-year career he played everything from cops to gunfighters to sheriffs to gangsters to a judge at the Nuremberg War Crimes trials. He could play a kindly grandfather in one film and a bullying, sadistic killer in the next, and be equally believable in both roles. A great character actor!
 Kathleen Mulqueen played the woman standing outside the stage depot in 'Eddie's Daughter'.  She was talking to Eddie before the stage came in - she gasped when she saw Lil stepped off the stage.
 She appeared in three more episodes ~ 'Angry Gun' as Mrs. Peterson. She was the lady who was on the stage ~  'The Actress' as the Landlady.  She was the lady who tended Jacob until Lucas could fetch his wife.  In 'The Sharpshooter' she played Nancy Hanavan.  She was the Judge Hanavan's wife/sister/daughter [?] and the clerk at the hotel.  In the original script — Nancy Hanavan was suppose to be Judge Hanavan's daughter. Her description was to be a good looking young woman, competent and vital.  In the original casting Nancy Hanavan is a much older woman, no way she could be his daughter?
She played Mrs. Mitchell, Henry's Mother in Dennis the Menace.

Jeff Daley as Sam.  He was the one cowboy grabbed Eddie, and was shaking his finger at him.
Brother of producer Robert Daley
A list of his credits are "Surfside 6"—"Wanted: Dead or Alive"—"The Restless Gun"—"Wagon Train"—"Tales of Wells Fargo"

John Harmon as Eddie Halstead hotel clerk

'Eddie's Daughter' & "The Illustrator"—The dress that Lil, Eddie's Daughter wore & the dress Hanna Shaw wore, look like the same dress to me.

*If anybody has any information on any of the stars, and would like to share it, please get in touch with

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updated 9/23/08