Spoiler : Patricia Ryan's best-known role was that of Henry Aldrich's girlfriend Kathleen. She died young, at 27. On Valentine's Day, 1949, she was on the air doing a Cavalcade of America show, when she suddenly got a horrible headache. Two other actresses jumped in and did her lines as she was taken to a chair to rest. She got well enough to go home, but her husband found her dead the next morning. Cause was said to be a cerebral hemorrhage. Several years earlier, an overhead microphone had fallen on her head, knocking her unconscious.