Maggie
Horton is the daughter of Elmer and Dorothy Simmons. She is the
mother of Sarah Horton, and the adoptive mother of Melissa Anderson
and Janice Barnes. She is the wife of Mickey Horton.
Maggie
Simmons was a simple farm girl from Brookville whose parents had died
in a farming accident when she was young. Young Maggie had survived
the accident but she suffered injuries that crippled her legs,
causing her to move only with the aid of crutches. Being taken care
of by Hank Wilson, her farm's caretaker, she grew up essentially
happy, albeit with the dream of walking freely someday. One day in
1974, a man came to Maggie's door asking for help and shelter. When
Maggie asked him his name, he said that it was "Marty Hanson." Maggie
liked Marty well enough and allowed him to stay. Marty had been in a
small car accident but recuperated fast while Maggie took care of
him. Over this time they became good friends. Once Marty was well, he
asked Maggie to allow him to stay at the farm -- he'd earn his keep
by working the fields. Naturally, Maggie allowed him to stay.
Eventually, Maggie and Marty fell in love and were married in a
quaint ceremony at the farm house.
Maggie
and Marty were very happy in the country. But one day, Maggie came
upon an article in a Salem newspaper about a missing man named Mickey
Horton. That man was none other than Marty! He had suffered a heart
attack and a stroke before disappearing from Salem. Furthermore,
Marty was married to a beautiful doctor named Laura Horton. An
insecure Maggie, afraid of losing Marty's love, realized that he was
suffering from amnesia caused by the stroke and chose not to tell him
his real identity. She felt that she was no match for Laura. However,
Mickey's family eventually found out that he was living in Brookville
under the name Marty Hanson. Tom, Bill, and Laura -- Mickey's father,
brother, and wife -- all came to the farm to try to bring him home.
Yet, their presence did not bring back Mickey's memory. In addition,
when they told Marty about his life back in Salem, Marty concluded
that he had been a vengeful man and decided that he was better off
staying in Brookville with Maggie. He gladly gave Laura a divorce and
remarried an overjoyed Maggie.
Maggie
and Marty settled back down once again and tried to forget about his
family in Salem. However, Marty soon came upon a newspaper article
about experimental procedure that could repair injuries such as the
ones on Maggie's legs. Knowing that Maggie's dream was to walk
without crutches, Marty arranged for Maggie to receive the surgery at
University Hospital in Salem. Although Maggie was excited about the
surgery, she was hesitant about going to Salem. Even though Marty had
chosen to stay with her, she still feared that a visit to Salem would
bring back his memory and cause him to leave her. The stay in Salem
would be a lengthy one, as several surgeries were needed. While in
Salem, Marty met his son, Mike Horton. Also, he met Linda
Phillips, a woman who claimed to be an old friend of his. Linda also
befriended Maggie and supported her throughout her surgery. After the
surgery, Marty gave Maggie a meaningful present: a red dress and
red dancing shoes. He vowed to her that *when* she regained the
ability to walk they would go dancing all night long. However, Linda
dropped a bombshell after Maggie and Marty returned to Brookville.
She claimed that her little daughter Melissa was Mickey's. Linda
managed to convince Marty of this, claiming that they had been in
love in the past. Maggie immediately saw Linda as a threat to her
marriage as she used Melissa to try to rekindle a romance with Marty.
During this time, Linda's estranged husband, Jim Phillips,
discovered what Linda was up to and wrote a letter to Maggie telling
her the truth about Mickey & Linda's past relationship and
the fact that Melissa was Jim's daughter. Maggie was tempted to show
the letter to Marty but she knew that the shock would be too much for
him to bear. Instead, she hid the letter but let Linda know that she
was on to her game. Meanwhile, Maggie's surgical procedure began to
take effect. Little by little, she was able to walk a few steps
without the aid of crutches. However, she did not tell Marty about
her success. As Marty grew more attached to Melissa, Maggie became
convinced that he was only staying with her because of her
disability. So as long as Marty believed that she couldn't walk, he
wouldn't leave her. However, Linda, who had come to stay at the farm,
saw Maggie walking. They confronted each other with what they knew
about one another and remained at a stalemate. They would both lose
if they revealed to Marty what they knew about each other. After
Linda and Melissa returned to Salem, things seemed to go back to
normal. However, Melissa's presence had touched both Marty and
Maggie. Knowing that Marty was sterile (they mistakenly believed that
it was a condition produced by Mickey's stroke), Maggie and Marty
yearned for a child of their own. On Christmas Day 1975, Marty
presented Maggie with a surprise. A little blonde girl about the same
age as Melissa appeared in the living room. Marty had begun
proceedings to adopt the girl, Janice. She was instantly overcome
with tears and thanked Marty for the most wonderful gift he could
have given her.
Although
life seemed to be getting better for the happy couple, things would
soon turn upside down for them. In January of 1976, Michael, Marty's
son, came to stay with Maggie and Marty at the farm. He hoped that
his presence would jog Marty's memory and bring back Mickey Horton.
While trying to fix a truck, the jack gave way and crushed Mike. The
accident set off a disastrous chain of events. While Maggie stayed by
Mike's side, Marty's memory returned when he discovered that he
couldn't possibly be Mike's father (his blood type didn't
match.) The revelation was so infuriating that it drove Marty --
now Mickey again -- to shoot his brother Bill, Michael's real father.
Mickey subsequently suffered a severe nervous breakdown, tried to
strangle Linda imagining that she was Laura, and was finally
committed to Bayview Sanitarium. In Bayview, Mickey's sanity vanished
to the point where he was almost catatonic and couldn't respond to
anything or anyone. During this time, Maggie didn't know what to do.
In addition to Mickey's breakdown, Janice had developed an illness
that prevented the movement of her legs. Fortunately, Mickey's
parents, Tom and Alice, took Maggie in while she came to Salem to
help Mickey and have Janice treated. While Janice's condition
improved, Maggie had no idea what would become of her marriage. She
loved Mickey, but she wasn't sure if he would return that love. After
all, it had been Marty, not Mickey, who had fallen in love with her.
If Laura brought out such passionate emotions in him it was because
he loved her. Poor, insecure Maggie didn't feel like she could
compete against Mickey's ex-wife. In several visits to him at
Bayview, Mickey showed no response. Finally, Maggie tried one last
thing. In her final visit, Maggie put down her crutches and walked
for Mickey. Seeing Maggie take those steps that he'd always wanted to
see brought Mickey out of his catatonic state and for the first time
he showed signs of lucidity. He still had a long way to go, but
Maggie was sure that he would recover. Meanwhile, Julie Anderson,
Mickey's niece, invited Maggie to move in with her and gave her a
makeover. A radiant Maggie was now ready to face a new life in
Salem.
It was a long struggle, but Mickey eventually recovered, and chose to remain married to Maggie. She had been the only good thing to come out of the worst period in his life. After Mickey was finally released from the Sanitarium, he and Maggie chose to stay in Salem and bought a home. And yes, Mickey did take her out to dance all night long at Doug's Place in her red shoes. Meanwhile, Janice, whom they could not adopt because of Mickey's mental health, did remain with them as a foster daughter. Mickey and Maggie were happy for the most part. In the fall of 1977, they received new next-door neighbors, the Bartons. While Maggie became friends with Jean Barton, she couldn't help noticing that she and her son had bruises on them. Meanwhile, Billy Barton, her son, often hit Janice. The conclusion was that Billy and Jean were being physically abused by Fred Barton. Maggie urged Jean to leave Fred and go to a women's shelter. However, Fred didn't take kindly to Maggie's advice and hit her as well! Following this, Maggie decided to stay out of her neighbor's lives. Fred and Jean eventually moved away.
After a year of relatively calm marriage, Maggie and Mickey tried once again to adopt Janice. But one evening, they returned home to find Janice missing. A note left on the door indicated that someone had taken Janice but that she would be returned soon and unharmed. Maggie and Mickey immediately began a massive effort to locate Janice. After a grueling week, Janice was finally found alone in a motel in Orlando, Florida. Mickey and Maggie were flown down there by the FBI to pick her up. Janice had been kidnapped by a woman named Joanne Barnes, who was in the Orlando hospital after suffering an attack of angina. As it turned out, Joanna happened to be Janice's birth mother. She had told Janice that she was a fairy godmother and taken her to Disney World. While recuperating, Joanne apologized to Maggie for scaring her. She confessed that she had given Janice up for adoption because of her illness; now that she was dying, Joanne had wanted to see her daughter before she died. Maggie instantly felt sorry for the woman and tried to get all charges against her dropped. Furthermore, she and Mickey arranged for Joanne to be flown to Salem University Hospital, were a new procedure to treat angina was being developed. Mickey was hesitant about bringing Joanne to Salem but went along with Maggie's wished. However, Mickey made Joanne promise that she would never tell Janice that she was her real mother. Furthermore, he also made her promise to leave Salem after her treatment was over. Maggie was relieved to hear Joanne agree to this. However, Janice soon began acting strangely toward Maggie. She became insolent and aggressive toward her. Maggie had no idea why Janice was rejecting Maggie all of a sudden but tried to keep calm. Meanwhile, Joanne was given a clean bill of health and released from the hospital. But instead of leaving Salem, she took a job working as a maid at Linda and Bob Anderson's home, with the purpose of seeing Janice (Janice and Melissa were friends.) Soon, Janice began spending most of her time at the Anderson home and became even more rude toward Maggie. Maggie began to realize that Janice *knew* that Joanne was her real mother. Agitated by the fear of losing her daughter, Maggie began to drink to ease her sorrow.
More information to follow!
The character of Maggie Horton has
been played by Suzanne Rogers from 1974-1984 and again from
1985-present.