“Ginger or Mary Ann?” It’s a question we ask and answer to declare our fundamental self, like “Beatles or Stones?” and “Lennon or McCartney?” If we understand the terms, of course — and who does not?

Dawn Wells, who played farm girl Mary Ann Summers on “Gilligan’s Island” from 1964 to 1967 — alongside Tina Louise’s movie star Ginger Grant, one of the two “eligible” women on the epochal sitcom — died of complications from COVID-19 Wednesday, leaving a small but not insignificant hole in the collective pop consciousness.