I happened to have played her husband (Conrad) and her role kept getting cut. Which needless to say she didn't appreciate. I didn't have much choice since I was extremely unknown and just had to bite the bullet. Which my character did literally. However at the time she was more well known than most everyone else in the cast.
As Always, Rusty Meyers
imdb.com/name/nm0583620
youtube.com/rawtlnt

I agree. I thought her relationships with Emmot and Passenger was weak. She seemed to be more if a dream figure to the men until they realized she wanted to settle down again (she was a widow, after all) and do the hard work of scratching out a homestead.
Linda Hunt won an acting Oscar a couple of years before for aher role in A Year of Living Dangerously. Her role put her in the thick of the events in the town of Silverado.