Jennifer
Horton is the daughter of Bill and Laura Horton. She is the younger
sister of Mike Horton, half-sister of Lucas Roberts, and mother of
Abigail Deveraux. She is the ex-wife of Lawrence Alamain, Jack
Deveraux, and Peter Blake.
In January of 1976, Jennifer Rose Horton was born in a Brookville farmhouse during a violent snow storm, delivered by her father Bill and one of the farm's caretakers, Rosie Carlson. Later, her date of birth would be changed to September 11. Her middle name, Rose, was given to Jennifer as a symbol of gratitude to Rosie for aiding in the delivery. Jennifer was the first child that Bill and Laura could publicly acknowledge, and her birth was the seemingly happy ending to Bill and Laura's troubled relationship. Unfortunately, when Jennifer was barely 3 years old, Laura's sanity began to slip away. Jennifer almost became a victim of Laura's instability several times. Laura, who was schizophrenic, was seeing visions of her mother at the time, and the visions told her to kill Jennifer. Laura almost dropped Jennifer out of a second-story window one night. After this incident, Laura blindly placed the toddler on a bus to Dayton, Ohio thinking that she would be out of harm's way there. Fortunately, Jennifer was rescued in time. Laura was placed in Bayview Sanitarium soon after. The following year, Jennifer and Bill moved to Chicago after Laura was transferred to a hospital there. Jennifer would eventually grow up in Swiss boarding schools, without a mother and with hardly a father.
In
October 1985, a 16 year-old Jennifer arrived back in Salem. She was
living on the streets, pickpocketting and stealing purses to survive,
along with her friends Nancy Pearson and Matt Burns. As it turned
out, she had been kicked out of her boarding school and refused to
contact any of her family. She finally decided to seek her brother
Mike's help. Although he wanted her to go to their grandparents,
Alice and Tom, she wanted to stay hidden a while longer. At first,
Mike helped her by letting her stay in his apartment. However,
Jennifer proved to be a lot of trouble, especially after she threw a
party while he was on duty at the hospital. Also, Jennifer,
influenced by Matt and Nancy, began stealing from Mike. She also
stole people's money, and eventually got herself arrested. Mike
bailed her out. But when he found that Jennifer continued to steal,
he finally kicked her out. Jennifer had no recourse but to make her
presence known to her grandparents. Alice and Tom forgave her and
asked her to move in with them. Shortly after this, the Hospital
Rapist attacked Jennifer one night but luckily she escaped unharmed.
Meanwhile, she started classes at Salem High School.
Jennifer did not have it easy at school. She found it very difficult to make friends but was eager to join the popular crowd, led by snooty classmates like Veronica Allen and Sheryl Coleman. Joining their clique wasn't easy, especially after Jennifer got on Veronica's bad side when Veronica's boyfriend, Nick Samuels, began pursuing her. Knowing that Veronica and her friends were desperate to pass mid-term exams, Jennifer stole the exam from their professor and gave it to Veronica. Almost immediately, Xeroxed copies of the exam circulated the school and the faculty began searching for culprits. Veronica, who had made the copies, was the first to get caught. She finally told the professor that Jennifer had stolen the exam and Jennifer was in very deep trouble. Needless to say, Jennifer was suspended for her actions and grounded by her grandparents. Meanwhile, Jennifer was saddened when her friend Nancy was diagnosed with Leukemia. Despite Mike's efforts, Nancy died. Following Nancy's death, her friend Matt turned to drugs and attempted suicide. Nancy's death and Matt's attempted suicide caused Jennifer to grow up a little, making her realize that there were more important things in life than petty high school problems such as shallow friends and being popular.
In
the summer of 1986, Jennifer met Glenn Gallagher, who just happened
to be captain of the football team. Although Glenn and Jennifer
didn't initially hit it off, they became friends over the following
weeks as she helped him deal with the recent death of his brother
Dean, who had died of a cocaine overdose. Jennifer was crazy about
Glenn and constantly hoped that he would think of her as more than a
friend. One day, while at the hospital, Jennifer and her cousin
Melissa were taken hostage by the father of one of Mike's patients.
Glenn unexpectedly became involved in the situation and ended up
saving Jennifer when he put his football skills to use and tackled
the man. This brought Jennifer and Glenn closer, but his mother soon
got in the way. When Jennifer found Sylvie Gallagher drinking, she
innocently told her that her aunt Maggie could help her with her
alcohol problem since she was a recovering alcoholic. From that
moment, Sylvie took a dislike to Jennifer. Not long after, Jennifer's
heart sank one day when she and Glenn arrived at his house to find
Claudia Hansen there. Claudia happened to be Glenn's rich, beautiful
ex-girlfriend who had been vacationing in Europe. Sylvie had invited
her to come and live with them for a while until Claudia's parents
returned. Jennifer, being the overly dramatic teenager that she was,
thought that her world was over. However, Glenn explained to Jennifer
that he and Claudia had broken up. Furthermore, Glenn admitted that
he had feelings for Jennifer and kissed her.
Jennifer and Glenn continued to get closer, especially after he let her see him without his shirt. Glenn had a problem with one of his pectoral muscles and was extremely self-conscious about it, but Jennifer told him that it didn't matter. Just then, they began to make love, but Jennifer decided that she couldn't go through with it. Meanwhile, Claudia tried to get Glenn back. Wanting to apologize for her behavior, Jennifer went to Glenn's house only to find him and Claudia kissing. Once again, Jennifer thought her world was over and regretted not having made love to Glenn. However, Glenn explained to Jennifer that he didn't want Claudia, he wanted her! Jennifer accepted Glenn's apology. Claudia loomed in the shadows for a while, she eventually moved to Europe. Jennifer and Glenn, for the time being, seemed to have a clear road ahead.
However,
problems arose later that year during Salem High's remarkable
football season. Rumors began spreading around the school that all
the football players snorted cocaine before the games so they would
have more energy and win. When Jennifer confronted Glenn about this,
he nervously denied it. But one night, Jen found a packet of cocaine
in his letterman jacket. Before he had a chance to explain, she put
great distance between them. Little did Jennifer know that Glenn was
working undercover for the police in order to arrest Coach Locke, who
was supplying the football players with the drugs. It was at this
time that Jennifer met Frankie Donner, a new student. Frankie and
Jennifer shared a common bond, since Frankie had also lived on the
streets stealing purses. They quickly struck up a friendship as he
became her math tutor. Though Frankie began to have feelings for
Jennifer, she continued to date Glenn. Jennifer began to like Frankie
too, especially the night she and Glenn were crowned king and queen
at the Winter Wonderland Dance, but tried to suppress those feelings
for Glenn's sake.
Early in 1987, Glenn finally told Jennifer the truth after she berated him for using drugs knowing what had happened to his brother. Knowing that it was all police work, Jennifer apologized to Glenn. However, Glenn informed her that they couldn't see each other until the operation was over. After a month of being apart, Jennifer was sick of it. One day at school, Jennifer, in her usual loud manner, told Glenn that she wanted to be with him even though he was a narc. Unfortunately, Coach Locke overheard this. Later that night, Jennifer arrived at the park looking for Glenn but instead found Glenn being held at gunpoint by Coach Locke; she had blown his cover. She and Glenn briefly managed to get away and Glenn told Jennifer to get help. As Jennifer was leaving, Coach Locke caught up to Glenn and once again held him at gunpoint. Suddenly, Frankie arrived on the scene and he and Jennifer called Abe. Sadly, while the cops moved in on Coach Locke, gunfire was exchanged and Frankie's little brother, Max, was shot. Fortunately, Jennifer and Frankie got Max to the hospital in time and he survived. After Coach Locke was sent to jail, Jennifer and Glenn got back together and proclaimed their love to one another, and he gave her his class ring.
However, soon after this Glenn decided that they're relationship needed to go a step further, meaning sex. At first, Jennifer told him that she wasn't ready and Glenn respected her decision. But as time went by, the subject came up more and more, and Jennifer began to feel pressured. She turned to her friend Frankie during this time, who told her that she should only do it with someone she loves. As she spent more and more time with Frankie, Jennifer began to realize that she didn't love Glenn. Nevertheless, she tried to put those feelings aside. In fact, she matched up Frankie with her friend Sasha Roberts. Frankie and Sasha hit it off well, but soon she became jealous of Frankie's friendship with Jennifer.
Toward
the end of the school year, Jennifer's class took their Senior trip
to Florida. Once again, Glenn sought the opportunity to make love to
Jennifer and organized a romantic dinner for them. And once again,
Jennifer felt she wasn't ready. This time, Glenn got angry with her
and left her all alone. The next day, on the beach, Jennifer
overheard people talking about her. As it turned out, Glenn had told
Sasha about what had happened, and Sasha had pretty much told
everyone. Jennifer confronted Glenn about it. Although he apologized,
she finally told him that it just couldn't work out. She told him
that she would only be ready to make love to someone that she truly
loved, and now she realized that she didn't love him. And with that,
Jennifer gave Glenn back his ring and left him alone on the beach.
She later sought Frankie and he comforted her, telling her that he
was also a virgin and didn't plan on losing his virginity until he
was married. Deciding that she couldn't be on the same bus with Glenn
all the way back to Salem, Jennifer decided to buy her own bus ticket
back to Salem. Frankie accompanied her.
On
their way back to Salem, Frankie and Jennifer got off the bus for a
while to buy some snacks. While in the convenient store, Frankie got
out his video camera and began recording Jennifer. While recording, a
few men came into the store, killed the clerk, and robbed the
register. Since all of this was caught on film, the robbers began to
chase them. Frankie and Jennifer were forced to hide out in the woods
from the robbers. After many close calls, Frankie and Jennifer were
finally arrested by a cop when they attempted to hot wire a car.
Unfortunately, the cop didn't believe their story (Jennifer lost the
video tape of the robbery) and he placed them in jail. Fortunately,
they were let go after it was proven that what they said was true.
After the robbers were arrested, Jennifer and Frankie returned to
Salem.
Once returned to Salem, Jennifer had to deal with Glenn's bitterness toward the breakup. Meanwhile, she was given a final project - to create a newspaper. Unfortunately, Sasha was so jealous of Jennifer by this point that she destroyed the project before it was due. As a result, Jennifer was not allowed to attend the Prom and wouldn't graduate with the rest of her class. To lift her moods, Frankie re-created a Prom for Jennifer when he found her alone at the fishing shack on Prom night. There, they both danced together and shared their first kiss. Now, more than ever, it was evident that the two shared something far stronger than anything she and Glenn ever had.
Because of Jennifer's failed project, she was not included in the school's graduation ceremony, of which Frankie was valedictorian. Instead, she had to make up her project in the summer, and unceremoniously received her diploma in the mail. However, Frankie lifted her spirits by organizing a mock graduation ceremony with her family. Jennifer and Frankie quickly became romantic, but took things slow when Frankie was awarded a full scholarship to attend Columbia University. Eventually, Frankie chose to stay with Jennifer and attend Salem University. Meanwhile, she and Frankie discovered that Sasha had been lured into a prostitution ring run by Nick Corelli. Working with the police, Frankie and Jennifer were able to break up the ring and get Sasha out of hooking. While doing so, they met another one of Nick's teen prostitutes, Eve Baron.
By
the end of the summer, Jennifer and Frankie were fully committed to
one another. Meanwhile, Jennifer's father Bill called to say that he
was moving back to Salem. Jennifer was not exactly thrilled about
this. She resented her father for being missing from her life. To add
insult to injury, Bill was coming home on her 18th birthday -- and no
one remembered that it was her birthday, or so she thought. Feeling
rejected, Jennifer went to Frankie's college dorm and celebrated her
birthday with him with a pizza. While dancing together, Jennifer and
Frankie began to get hot and heavy and worked their way onto the bed.
But before anything happened, they both agreed that they wanted to
remain virgins until marriage. At that moment, Bill arrived at the
dorm and found Jennifer and Frankie in that very compromising
position, and had a heated argument with Jennifer. Bill and Jennifer
continued to be at odds with each other. He wanted her to move in
with him and stop seeing Frankie, and she wanted to live with her
grandparents and continue to see Frankie. Finally, Bill agreed to
allow Jennifer to live at the dorms. A short time later, Jennifer and
Frankie "officially" declared their committment to one another.
Jokingly, Frankie suggested that they get married. But Jennifer took
it seriously and told him that she would gladly marry him. The two
had just gotten engaged. When they announced their engagement to the
family, Bill blew up at them. Tom and Alice weren't too happy with
Jennifer's decision either. Eventually, Frankie and Jennifer agreed
not to be so hasty about getting married, but they did move in
together.
During this time, Laura Horton, Jennifer's mother, began suffering relapses. Not fully aware of what her mother suffered from, Jennifer was overwhelmed when she was told that her mother was schizophrenic. She was also told that her grandmother (Carrie Spencer, not Alice!) had also been schizophrenic, and that the illness was sometimes hereditary. Fearing that she, too, would become mentally ill, Jennifer pushed Frankie away to spare him the pain of seeing her ill. Of course, she didn't tell Frankie any of this, so he had no idea why he was getting the cold shoulder all of the sudden. Jennifer merely told him that things had changed and that their relationship wouldn't work out. After getting nowhere with Jennifer, Frankie reluctantly moved out and broke up with her. Jennife was broken up about it, but she remained confident that what she was doing was the best thing for everyone concerned. Despite her choice, she watched over Frankie, and became jealous when he began working long hours with his professor Paula Carson at the Teen Hotline. Meanwhile, Jennifer befriended another student on campus, Alan Brand. Jennifer only saw Alan as a friend and opened up to him about her problems with Frankie, unaware that Alan wanted more than a friendship.
After
some time, Jennifer and Frankie actually bothered to talk to each
other, but she still was not willing to tell him that she wanted to
be with him. Even so, he declared his love for her. Shortly after
this, it came out in the student newspaper that Paula Carson had
slept with one of her students. Jennifer's worst fear became true
when Frankie admitted that he had given up his virginity to Paula.
Jennifer was heartbroken by this and refused to speak to him. Over
time, however, she forgave Frankie. After all, she was the one who
had pushed him away in the first place. Still, Paula continued to
come between them. Frankie wanted to help her maitain her job. As he
continued to come in contact with Paula, Jennifer grew jealous once
again. Jennifer tried to make love to Frankie in order to compete
with Paula, but he refused to do it with her knowing how she really
felt about waiting for marriage. Frankie told her that she didn't
need to do that for him, which just confused Jennifer because he'd
been more than willing to sleep with Paula! A short time later,
Frankie and Paula became involved with the police's investigation of
the Riverfront Knifer when someone was murdered outside of Paula's
apartment. Although Paula told the police that she'd seen the
murderer, it was actually Frankie who had seen him from her bedroom
window. Frankie confessed this to Jennifer. When she heard this, she
realized why Frankie had been in Paula's apartment and broke up with
him again. Jennifer turned her attention to Alan once again, who was
more than willing to give her his attention. One evening, Alan made a
move on Jennifer while on date with her at the fishing shack. At that
moment, Frankie arrived and protected Jennifer's honor by coming to
blows with Alan. After getting Alan to leave, Frankie apologized to
Jennifer for the pain he'd caused her, telling her that he only loved
her. Finally, she and Frankie reconciled for good.
With Paula and Alan finally out of the picture, it looked like smooth sailing from here on for Jennifer and Frankie. But soon a man began hanging around the Brady Fish Market and he seemed particularly interested in Frankie and Max. After much pestering, Frankie confessed to Jennifer that he and Max were not really brothers! Frankie had saved Max from his abusive father, Trent, and taken him away. Now, Trent wanted Max back. Without letting anyone know, Frankie and Max ran away. He finally contacted Jennifer from Ohio, and she decided to try to get him to return. Trent followed Jennifer to Ohio where she met up with Frankie. Trent demanded his son back, but he eventually came to the conclusion that Max would have a better life with Frankie and the Bradys. Jennifer, Frankie, and Max returned to Salem. Soon after, Frankie received word that Columbia University would not be renewing his scholarship if he didn't attend that fall. Wanting the best for Frankie, Jennifer told him to go to Columbia. In October, she and Frankie shared their final kiss as he boarded a plane headed to New York.
With Frankie gone, Jennifer devoted herself to her journalism studies at Salem University and her internship at the Salem Spectator. As part of her internship, Diana Colville (editor of the Spectator) allowed Jennifer to do research for a story on the Riverfront gangs, namely the Stingrays. Working on the story, Jennifer met Emilio Ramírez. Emilio had just been cleared of criminal charges and was looking to get out of gang life. Jennifer helped him finish his education and begin to make a better life for himself. She also developed feelings for him. The result of Jennifer's work with Emilio manifested itself in the form of an impressive article about gangs that received critical acclaim. Jennifer even received an award for her journalistic achievement. On television, Jennifer secretly thanked Emilio for helping her with the article. However, Emilio wasn't too pleased to receive the credit for the article and got angry at Jennifer for thinking well of him (Emilio had a serious inferiority complex that kept him from thinking he was good at anything.) One stormy winter night, Jennifer got stranded on the highway during a snow storm. While trying to get help, Jennifer got ill and passed out on the snow. As luck would have it, Emilio came upon her. After caring for the unconscious Jennifer, Emilio left and tipped her family off to her location. Jennifer recovered quickly. When she found out that Emilio had saved her life, her attraction to him grew even stronger.
Of course, Jennifer couldn't do anything about her feelings for Emilio; she and Frankie were, technically, still together. But shortly after Christmas, that conflict was resolved. Jennifer received a letter from Frankie in which he told her that it'd be best to go their separate ways. Determined to go on with her life, Jennifer continued to dedicate herself to her work. On the heels of her gang article, Jennifer came up with an idea for a series of articles about a retired race horse that was being trained to race again. The horse was named Jennifer's Beauty (a not-too-subtle sign that Emilio liked Jennifer), and Emilio was its trainer. Jennifer's idea was to record Emilio's work with Jennifer's Beauty. Naturally, this would entail lots of hours with Emilio, which is what she actually wanted.
As expected, Jennifer's Beauty soon was able to compete in races. One of these was going to take place in Florida, and Jennifer didn't have the money to go. Since her series had already been approved by Diana, Jennifer thought she'd ask The Spectator to pay for the trip to cover the story. However, when Jennifer went to talk to Diana about it, she was shocked to find a man in her office. It was former Assemblyman Jack Deveraux. Apparently, he had just become The Spectator's new owner and Editor-in-Chief. When Jennifer informed him about the story she was working on, he told her he disapproved of it. Desperate, Jennifer pitched the idea to him and explained why the story deserved coverage. Something about Jennifer -- perhaps her professionalism, or maybe her enthusiasm -- convinced Jack to let her continue working on the story. Furthermore, she got him to pay for the trip to Florida. Jennifer's encounter with her new boss had been a rough one, but she had triumphed in the end.
Jennifer
and Emilio immediately went to Florida to see Jennifer's Beauty race.
While in Florida, they shared their first kiss on the beach. Their
good time was interrupted when Emilio was arrested by the police for
a local crime, but Jennifer was able to bail him out when she proved
that it was a case of mistaken identity. In the end, Jennifer's
Beauty raced and came in third place. It was the victorious
melt-your-heart ending to Jennifer's series, and she thanked Emilio
for allowing her the opportunity to work with him by kissing him
again. But when they returned to Salem, they were unsure about their
relationship and they remained aloof. Meanwhile, Jennifer's articles
on the horse turned out to be real heartwarming crowd pleasers. For
the first time ever, Jennifer had her own byline. However, this
didn't make her relationship with her new boss any easier. Jack and
Jennifer would continue to exchange barbs whenever possible, and both
would continue to secretly enjoy their sparring matches.
Meanwhile, Jennifer and Emilio's future remained uncertain. Neither one was actually capable of taking the next step in their relationship even though they cared about each other. One day after a meeting at the Kiriakis house, Justin Kiriakis offered to give Jennifer a lift in his car. Just as they were leaving the drive way at full speed, Emilio mysteriously jumped out of the bushes screaming for Jennifer to get out of the car. Justin's brakes failed, the car hit Emilio, and then crashed into a wall. Though Justin and Jennifer suffered minor injuries, Emilio took a serious blow and was taken to the hospital. Jennifer watched over him faithfully until he recovered consciousness. Unfortunately, it was discovered that Justin's brakes had been tampered with; the "accident" had really been a murder attempt, and Emilio was the prime suspect (Emilio and Justin hated each other because Emilio had slept with Justin's wife, Adrienne.) Jennifer refused to believe that Emilio could've really been responsible, but it explained why Emilio had jumped in front of the car. She was just about the only one who believed he was innocent. But the truth was finally confirmed to Jennifer when she overheard Emilio confessing the truth to Adrienne. Furious, Jennifer told off Emilio in his hospital room and then walked out on him. Shortly after this, Emilio snuck out of the hospital and left Salem.
More information to follow!
The character of Jennifer Horton was
played by the following:
Maren Stephenson (1976-1977)
Jennifer Petersen (1977-1980)
Melissa Brennan Reeves (1985-1995; 2000-present)
Stephanie Cameron (1995-1998)
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