Remembering Woodbridge: A History of the Late, Great 'Secret Storm' (Part 9)

Dennis Cooney as Kevin Kincaid, Lynne Adams as Amy Ames Kincaid,
and Bernard Barrow as Dan Kincaid.

Remembering Woodbridge: A History of the Late, Great 'Secret Storm'

The Soap Box
Vol. IV No. 1 January 1979
by John Genovese

(continued from Part 8)

Doug Winthrop proved a disappointment to his mother, falling hopelessly in love with a former drug addict, Joanna Morrison, who came from a sad background. Her mother, May, had married a slob named Ed Rutledge who was known to beat Joanna while on frequent benders. Refusing to return to this less-than-idyllic existence, Joanna was taken under the wings of rivals Amy and Belle. While Amy gave Joanna the compassionate "tea and sympathy" approach, Belle took a hard line and made Joanna shape up and make something of herself. Ursula vehemently disapproved of Doug's relationship with Joanna and its effects on him. He was subconsciously shedding his "square" ways to fit in with Joanna's friends, Polly and Alden, a pair of "flower people" who always acted as if they walked seven feet off the ground. Belle and Joanna moved into a modern penthouse apartment and campaigned vigorously for Dan, who moved in with Belle and helped provide Joanna with the so-called secure family environment she had always lacked. Doug grew disgusted with Joanna's new life as a singer and left Woodbridge, and Joanna gave up singing to work in the hospital cafeteria.

Belle pretended to play hard-to-get when she kept stalling Dan's marriage proposals. Her secret dream was to marry in a lavish ceremony in the governor's mansion once Dan won the election. Alas, Belle's delusions of grandeur were thwarted: Dan surprised her with a secret wedding in their penthouse! Belle and Dan told no one about their marriage, mainly because of Kevin's distrust and disapproval of Belle, but the truth came out one night when Dan confessed his drug connections to Belle and had an automobile accident. Belle shocked Amy and Kevin by revealing she was Dan's next of kin in order to give him the hospital permission to operate. Dan recovered, turned state's evidence and went to prison for several months. Belle took a job with the Clarion, now published by a black woman named Ann Share.

Remembering Woodbridge: A History of the Late, Great 'Secret Storm' (Part 8)

Lori March as Valerie Ames, Eleanor Phelps as Grace Tyrell, Judy Lewis
as Susan Ames Carver and Lynne Adams as Amy Ames.

Remembering Woodbridge: A History of the Late, Great 'Secret Storm'

The Soap Box
Vol. IV No. 1 January 1979
by John Genovese

(continued from Part 7)

Amy had an intriguing new set of activities into which she invested her energies following her cure. She found a Christmas card from a Canadian family and questioned Grace about them. It was then that Grace told her family the story of Sean Childers Jr., a son Ellen Ames conceived through a ne'er-do-well named Sean Childers Sr. Grace had bribed Childers out of Woodbridge and arranged for the boy to be adopted by this aging Canadian couple. Amy decided to look up her half-brother and finally learned he was in an Army hospital. What Amy and her family didn't know was that Sean took his best buddy, Cory Boucher, into his confidence and died. Thus, the young man who joined the Ames family and moved into the apartment over their garage was not Sean Childers--it was Cory Boucher!

Cory's original intent was to cash in on Grace's riches and skip town along with his pal and partner in crime, Mickey Potter, but Cory began to feel new loyalties after assuming the identity of Sean Childers Jr. He began to genuinely love the Ames family, thinking of Grace as he really would a grandmother. But his love for Amy was nothing brotherly. Grace's illness subsided and she gave Sean/Cory a considerable sum of money, bolstering the suspicions Susan already had about this new arrival. Then Cory's father, criminal Harold McGonigle, arrived in Woodbridge with added schemes--including getting in on the Clayborn riches by starting out as Didi's gardener! By this time, Ken and Laurie knew that Clay was Ken's son and were fighting spiteful Didi for his custody. Aggie was still living with Paul and Belle, who had moved to publisher Collins' old house (which Belle detested), but Aggie was helping Didi run the house alone and sensed something slippery about McGonigle.