In 1952–1953, she performed in six episodes in different roles of another western series, "The Adventures of Kit Carson". In 1954, she appeared with Angie Dickinson and Lane Bradford in the episode "Sequoia", on the syndicated "Death Valley Days", a western anthology series, then hosted by Stanley Andrews. In 1955–1956, she was cast as Mrs. Cora McGill in "Paper Gunman" and as Annie Brayer in "The Salt War" of another western anthology series, "Frontier", which aired on NBC. Thurston had other guest roles in the 1950s on such series as "Sky King", "Soldiers of Fortune", "The Rough Riders", "26 Men", "Behind Closed Doors", "Highway Patrol", "Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse", and "The Man and the Challenge". She was cast twice on the Richard Boone series, "Have Gun - Will Travel", and once on CBS's "Rawhide" as Waneea in the 1959 episode, "Incident of the Power and the Plow". Thurston played the daughter of Newman Haynes Clanton, or Old Man Clanton, and while the real Clanton, an outlaw rancher near Tombstone in the Arizona Territory, had two daughters, neither was named "Emma" but instead Mary Elise and Ester Ann. Lyn Guild (1922–1995) had played the role of Emma in two earlier 1959 episodes of "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp". Emma Clanton in the series had a romantic interest in Marshal Earp, and in the season in which she appeared, so did hotel owner Nellie Cashman, played by Randy Stuart. In most of the storylines, Earp seemed oblivious to both young women, but kind and respectful toward each. Considering the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881, a real Emma Clanton may have viewed Earp as a family obstacle as did the historical brothers Billy and Ike Clanton. Her appearances as Emma Clanton include:  Thurston also was cast in different roles in four earlier episodes of "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" before she landed the continuing role as Emma Clanton. In one of those episodes, "Old Jake" (April 9, 1957), Thurston played Mrs. Cafferty, the distraught wife of a soldier who in the episode is killed by a buffalo hunter, Jake Caster (Francis McDonald) because the soldier had participated in the Sand Creek Massacre, in which Caster's Indian wife and son were slaughtered.