Patsy Louise "Patricia" Neal (January 20, 1926 – August 8, 2010) was an American actress of stage and screen. She was best known for her film roles as World War II widow Helen Benson in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), wealthy matron Emily Eustace Failenson in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), and the worn-out housekeeper Alma Brown in Hud (1963), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She featured as the matriarch in the television film "The Homecoming: A Christmas Story" (1971); her role as Olivia Walton was recast for the series it inspired, "The Waltons". "The Waltons" was an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain and a 1963 film of the same name, about a family in rural Virginia during the Great Depression and World War II.

In "The Homecoming", the Walton family is preparing for Christmas in the early 1930s. It's Christmas eve and they are waiting for father Walton to come home from his job in the city some 50 miles away. Since he is late, everyone is worried and over the radio the mother and grandparents hear about an overturned bus and hurt travelers but keep this news from the rest of the family. The story is really a coming of age story about the oldest son JohnBoy who must cut down the tree with his grandfather since his father isn't home and is eventually told about his missing father and sets out to find him.

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