[2] Appearing in dancing-chorus film roles from the age of five, Donahue was at one point a ballet-school classmate of future Fred Astaire partner Barrie Chase.

Donahue achieved stardom for her role as the elder daughter, Betty, on the television family series Father Knows Best, which aired from 1954 to 1960.

Thereafter, she was cast with James Best, Ann Doran, and J. Carrol Naish in the 1956 episode "The White Carnation" of the religion anthology series, Crossroads.

She also appeared as a new bride in The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show episode titled "The Newlyweds" that aired April 2, 1956.

In 1964, she appeared in the NBC TV series The Eleventh Hour, a medical drama dealing with psychiatry, starring Jack Ging and Ralph Bellamy, where she played the role of Melanie in the episode "The Secret in the Stone".

In 1984, she made an appearance as Mrs. Broderick, the mother of a teenage drug addict on the last season of Happy Days.

In 1987, she played the title character's mother in the short-lived Fox series The New Adventures of Beans Baxter.

In 1989 she appeared in an episode of The Golden Girls as the newest wife of Dorothy Zbornak's ex-husband, Stan.

She played the part of Lorraine, Luther Van Dam's girlfriend, in season five of Coach in the early 1990s.

The wedding took place in front of the Abbotts' new home, which just happened to be a replica of the Anderson house from Father Knows Best.

[13] As a memorial and resource for the history of American television, Donahue donated Ackerman's personal papers to the Rauner Library at Dartmouth College, his alma mater.