That was the magic of soap operas in their heyday. Welch also weighs in on why she thinks soaps have lost their magic. That backfired - Margo instead was bludgeoned with a fire poker by one of Eliot’s love interests, who also happened to be her maid. Margo’s shady business deals led her into financing pornography her unrequited love for a married man led her into a marriage-cum-business arrangement with Eliot Dorn, a former cult leader, in the hopes it would make her true love jealous. Margo was my favorite, nothing like Mom, who made me cringe with embarrassment whenever she wore her earth-toned velour tracksuits and clogs to the grocery store. She owned the local TV station, wore fur coats and painted her long fingernails a bloody red. Margo Huntington was the most successful businesswoman in all of Monticello. Mom’s next role lasted from 1978 to 1980, on yet another Procter & Gamble-sponsored soap, THE EDGE OF NIGHT. Though I was only 7 when Eunice was killed, I remember receiving a big box from Procter & Gamble every Christmas, filled with soaps and hair products. Jennifer held the gun, hearing voices Eunice whimpered, trying to reason with her psychotic murderess. She played Eunice for 10 years until Morgan Fairchild, in one of her first TV roles, as Jennifer Pace, shot Eunice in the back during a schizophrenic fit. When she conceived me in 1968, her pregnancy was written into her role as Eunice Wyatt on SEARCH FOR TOMORROW, another Procter & Gamble production.

Maggie Fielding on THE DOCTORS in 1964, leaving the show to give birth to Amanda in 1965. MALONE, one of the first televised soap operas to be produced by Procter & Gamble. In the early ’60s, my mother was cast as Erica Brandt on YOUNG DR. My mother financed porn films and married a cult leader. Here's an excert about Williams' early career:

Liz Welch wrote a fascinating op-ed piece in today's New York Times about her soap actress mother, Ann Williams, who died of cancer 24 years ago today leaving three orphans behind.

The Kids Are All Right by Diana Welch