 However, when it was learned no state in the Union allowed an unmarried woman to adopt a child (making Timmy's adoption by Ellen Miller an impossibility), production staff suggested the plot be saved by having Ellen wed. She would then have a man around the place to work the farm and a husband to make possible Timmy's adoption.Jan Clayton (who wanted to leave the show to return to her roots in musical theater), rejected the idea.With a marriage for Ellen nixed, writers fashioned a story in which her farm would be sold to Ruth and Paul Martin, a young couple new to the area.