After graduation, she went to New York. She studied acting under Lonny Chapman at The Theater Studio of New York. She took ballet and practiced yoga.[citation needed]
In New York, she landed a recurring role on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns. Harding appeared in the off-Broadway productions of The Innocents Abroad, The Boy Friend and Cry of the Raindrop, for which she won a Daniel Blum Theater World Award.[4]
In December 1961, she made her Broadway debut as Liz Michaelson in the comedy Take Her, She's Mine.[5]InTake Her She’s Mine, Harding played Art Carney’s youngest daughter. Elizabeth Ashley played her sister and won a Tony Award for her performance.[citation needed]
Harding was a regular cast member on The Richard Boone Show television anthology on NBC in 1963-1964.[6] She appeared in a 1964 episode of The Cara Williams Show and in two episodes of The Fugitive: as Joanna Mercer ("Moon Child", 1965) and as Cathy ("Ten Thousand Pieces of Silver", 1966).
Her Universal made-for-TV movie called Dial Hot Line spawned a series about an inner city psychiatrist. Harding continued her role of Ann on the ABC medical drama Matt Lincoln in 1970-1971.[7]
Harding married Gary Thomas in the 1970s. She retired from show business in the late 1970s and the couple moved to Maine. They separated years later. She settled in Blue Hill, Maine where she became an artist.[1]
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that Harding died in hospice care on March 22, 2019, at the age of 81, of natural causes. Her memorial service was held April 13, 2019, at 11 a.m. at Monumental United Methodist Church in Emporia, Virginia.[8]
