Karen Grassle. Actress: Little House on the Prairie. Karen Grassle is an American actress from Berkeley, California. She is primarily known for portraying the historical figure of Caroline Ingalls (1839 -1924) in the long-running Western television series "Little House on the Prairie" (1974-1983). Caroline was the mother of the novelist Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957), whose works had inspired the series.In 1942, Grassle was born in Berkeley, California. The city is...