Donna Reed, her show, and the history of her Palm Springs home

Special to The Desert Sun

Hanging on the wall above the fireplace in the television set living room of the "Donna Reed Show" was a desert landscape painting. It was a large painting and a small homage to Palm Springs. Reed was a regular in the desert and would eventually own a house in the Las Palmas neighborhood. Its walls contained a mighty unusual and interesting history.

While working on the William T. Walker House in the Movie Colony neighborhood of Palm Springs in 1934, architect Charles O. Matcham designed an expansive home for Katherine Seaman. Properly Katherine Ruffin de Roulhac Weed Seaman, she was a noted beauty from old East Coast money and owned homes in the choice spots of Santa Barbara and Malibu Beach, and now she was adding Palm Springs to the list. That same year, Donn