Child actress Lauren Chapin, who starred as Kathy “Kitten” Anderson, the youngest child on the 1950s television series “Father Knows Best,” died on Tuesday, her son announced on social media. She was 80.

Chapin died after a battle with cancer, Matthew Chapin, wrote in a Facebook post.

“After a long hard fought battle over the past 5 years, the time has come. My mother Lauren Chapin passed away from her battle with cancer tonight," he wrote. “I’m at a complete loss for words right now. Please keep my sister and family in your thoughts and prayers as we go through this incredibly tough time.”

Chapin said she was molested as a child and then faced drug abuse, jail sentences, eight miscarriages and divorce after “Father Knows Best” ended its run on television in 1960, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

She was 9 years old when the series debuted in 1954, and Chapin appeared in 201 episodes, according to IMDb.com.

The series, which starred Robert Young and Jane Wyatt, also featured Chapin and older siblings Betty “Princess” Anderson (Elinor Donahue) and James “Bun” Anderson (Billy Gray).

Donahue and Gray are 88, Extra reported.

Chapin was born in Los Angeles on May 23, 1945, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Her older brothers, Billy Chapin (“The Night of the Hunter”) and Michael Chapin (“It’s a Wonderful Life”), were also child actors.

Her first work was an uncredited role in the 1954 film “A Star Is Born.”

The actress said that when she was 6, her mother took her brother Billy to New York to work on his stage career, the entertainment news website reported. She claimed she was left with her father, who allegedly molested her.

By the time she was 11, Chapin said she was a “manic depressive personality” and attempted suicide.

“It was very difficult to understand how Kathy Anderson could be loved and protected and Lauren Chapin lived a whole different kind of life,” she said during a 1989 appearance on “Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee.” “I didn’t understand how God could let me suffer.”

Five months after “Father Knows Best” ended, Chapin appeared on an installment of “General Electric Theater,” but that was her last acting role for 16 years, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

She became sober in 1970 and worked as a minister and a talent manager.

She reprised her role as Kitten in two “Father Knows Best” reunions in 1977.

Chapin also published a memoir, “Father Does Know Best” in 1989, and appeared in the 2016 YouTube series, “School Bus Diaries.”

“If I could be on television again, I would pray for a series like ‘Father Knows Best,’” she told People in a 1981 interview. “One that has no violence, no sex and shows nothing but purity and love.”

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