Tom
Horton is Alice's ex-husband. Although he is gone, he is the essence
of Days of Our Lives. He will forever be with the shows, as he is the
person who speaks the credo, "Like sands through the hourglass, so
are the days of our lives." Like Alice, Tom never had a storyline of
his own. But he remained a strong presence in Salem for almost 29
years. He is the father of Tommy, Addie, Mickey, Bill, and Marie
Horton. Grandfather of Mike, Jennifer, Janice, Jessica, Sarah and
Sandy Horton, and of Julie and Steven Olson, Melissa Anderson, Lucas
Roberts and Hope Williams. Great-grandfather of David Banning, Jeremy
Horton, Abigail Deveraux, Shawn-Douglas Brady, and Will Reed.
Great-great-grandfather of Scotty Banning. Tom had come from a poor
family, and worked very hard to achieve the position of
Chief-of-Staff at University Hospital. Following are a few of Tom's
"storylines."
In
1965, before he was at the top of the ranks at the hospital, Tom
Horton was a simple physician who had his office at home. In addition
to the private practice, Tom taught at the Salem University School of
Medicine and held a position at the hospital. In November of 1965,
Tom was preparing to give away his last daughter Marie, who was to be
married to Tony Merritt. The night before the wedding, Tom received a
phone call from the wife of Carl Sawyer, one of Tom's patients.
Apparently, Carl had taken ill so Tom promised to be there
shortly. But after Tom hung up the phone, he and Mickey found Marie
in her bedroom unconscious. She had tried to commit suicide with
pills after Tony broke their engagement. Tom managed to save her
life. Unfortunately, he was so busy saving Marie that three hours
passed before he could go to the Sawyer home. When he finally
got there, Carl Sawyer had died from internal bleeding. His daughter,
Jean, vowed to make Tom pay for murdering her father.
Tom, of course, didn't feel that he was responsible for Carl's death. Jean maintained that her mother had called the Horton home three times that night in order to tell Tom of Carl's worsening condition. However, Tom had only spoken with Anna Sawyer twice, and in neither conversation had she mentioned an emergency. It had been the third phone call, which Alice attended, which had been to alert Tom of Carl's condition. But Alice, who at the time had been preoccupied with Marie's own crisis, had forgotten to give Tom the phone call. In addition to this, Tom refused to tell anyone involved why he had taken so long to arrive at the Sawyer home that night; he did not want Marie's suicide attempt to become public. This refusal to say why he was "unavoidably detained" made him look guilty. Before long, Jean Sawyer filed a malpractice lawsuit against Tom. To make matters worse, Harold Wade, the head of the University Hospital board of directors, made Tom resign from his position at the hospital until the matter was resolved.
Meanwhile, Marie was in a deep state of depression. She refused to go out and virtually stayed in her bedroom all day and night. Tom and the rest of the family tried to cheer her up with no success. In the meantime, Tom and Mickey discussed how to handle the lawsuit, and tried their best to keep the lawsuit a secret from Marie. The trial finally began in January. Following the emotional testimonies of Jean and Anna Sawyer, and the expert opinions of several doctors, it looked like Tom would lose the case because it seemed like there had been negligence on his part. But at the last moment, Marie discovered why there was a trial, and why Tom looked guilty. She selflessly walked into the courtroom and begged to be heard. The truth finally came out, from her own mouth: she had tried to commit suicide, and Tom saved her life - that's why he couldn't take care of Carl Sawyer. In light of this, it was determined that Tom had been experiencing an emergency in his own home and was therefore absolved of any malpractice or negligence. Despite this, Tom did give the Sawyer family a small settlement to help them financially.
Following the trial, Tom was reinstated into the hospital staff. One day, dairy farmer from the nearby town of Woodstock was brought into the hospital with a severe case of dysentery and signs of a tumor. After a short while the man died. Tom and his colleague, Rusty Lincoln, were bewildered at what had happened. The following week another man was brought in with the same symptoms! Tests showed that there was no tumor, and Tom treated the dysentery continuously to keep the man alive. After much debating, Tom and Rusty concluded that the two men had been suffering of poisoning and worked together to trace the source. Tom & Rusty knew that it had to come from Woodstock, but they didn't know from where. Not much later, Julie came down with the poisoning as well. After working desperately to keep her alive, Tom managed to get Julie and David Martin, her boyfriend, where they had been the day Julie became sick. As it turned out, they had been in Woodstock, where Julie had drank water from a well. Thanks to that information, Tom and Rusty were able to trace the poisoning to a soap factory owned by Woodstock Industries. The factory was right on the Salem River, and the chemical runoff was the cause of the poisoning. This revelation was very disquieting for Tom, especially because Mickey was Woodstock Industries' new attorney. Although they were on opposite sides, Tom and Mickey worked together to have the factory clean the pollution and take measures to prevent it (in reality, the network told Days to stop that storyline because Days' sponsors, who were mostly soap manufacturers, thought it portrayed them in a negative light.)
In 1967, Tom befriended staff-newcomer Dr. Mark Brooks. Mark and Tom instantly became great friends. Not only Tom, but all of the Hortons felt something very familiar about Mark. And Mark felt right at home when he was in the Horton residence; so much at home that he knew where certain things, like matches, were kept, and other funny little details. Eventually, it was learned that Mark was actually Tom and Alice's dead son, Tommy, who had been MIA in Korea. In 1969, Bill confided in Tom and told him that he had fathered Mike, not Mickey. Tom kept this a secret until finally the truth was revealed, several years later.
Over
the years, Tom developed a heart condition and was prone to heart
attacks. Despite that, he always trusted in God. Which is why he was
extremely upset with Alice when her faith began to grow wan after she
was diagnosed with cancer. However, the faith her husband had
restored hers. As it turned out, the diagnosis had been a mistake;
Alice did not have cancer. But some time later, Tom was the one
affected when he suffered a heart attack upon arriving home from
work. Fortunately, Tommy found him in time and managed to practically
save his life. Although it looked bad for Tom, he and Alice, with
faith in God, overcame this ordeal together with their
family.
In 1985, Tom was once again sued for malpractice when he inadvertently killed Paul Selejko trying to save his life. Tom and Alice had been driving to Blondie's for a New Year's party when they watched the Anderson Manufacturing plant explode, and a man engulfed in flames run out of the inferno. He had tried to save the man by giving him an injection of morphine, but it killed him because he was allergic to it. Speed Selejko, Paul's son, sued Tom because he claimed that his father had always worn his Medic-Alert bracelet. The case presented by Speed's lawyer, Gwen Davies, was that Tom had accidentally killed Paul and, seeing his mistake, gotten rid of the Medic-Alert bracelet. Evidence that the bracelet had not been on Paul's person and Alice's own account of what happened caused the lawsuit to be dismissed.
In
1988, Tom became Norm de Plume, as he snuck out of the house at
nights to recite poetry at Calliope Bradford's Beat Bar. Alice had
begun to get suspicious of him and finally confronted Tom. She
thought he was fooling around with someone behind her back! Finally,
he confessed his secret Bohemian passion and took her to the Beat
Bar, where he recited a love poem written for her. That same year,
Alice discovered that her marriage to Tom was invalid. The minister
who had performed the wedding had been fraudulent. Tom admitted that
he'd known the entire time. Although Alice was upset, he proposed to
her once again, and they remarried in front of their entire
family.
In 1991, Tom was passed up for the Chief-Of-Staff position at the hospital when Neil Curtis was hired. He then resigned from the hospital in order to head the new Trauma Center. After Neil left for California, the Trauma Center became part of the University Hospital complex and Tom became Chief-of-Staff. His lifelong dream had finally become true. But the following year, Tom and the rest of the hospital staff were yet again sued for malpractice. This time, by the Lombard family, following the death of Dean Lombard at the hands of Chip Lakin, a first year intern. However, there was no negligence and the lawsuit was dismissed with the help of Rob Stemkowski.
1993
was a difficult year for Tom. He and Alice remodeled their home and
founded The Horton Center. While he was doing this, the hospital was
sued as a result of three mysterious deaths. Tom had to face the heat
for this. The situation became worse for Tom when one of his best
doctors, Dr. Carly Manning, was accused of murdering the three
persons, and of attempting to murder Caroline Brady. Eventually, the
lawsuits were dropped after it was revealed that Vivian Alamain had
framed Carly. Meanwhile, the Horton Center was up and running. After
initial controversy involving an AIDS-stricken youth named Kevin
Tursi, the Horton Center flourished. In late December, right before
Christmas, Tom suffered a heart attack while at work. His family
gathered around him for support, and even brought the Christmas tree
to his hospital room. Tom quickly recovered, but went back to a heavy
load of work.
For four months, he worked nonstop,
and also traveled intensely to several medical conferences (actor
Macdonald Carey had fallen ill and could not work, so his character
was always on a business trip. Sadly, Macdonald Carey died in March,
1994.) After this tremendous strain, Tom came home from a medical
conference in May and went right to bed to take a nap. Alice found
him on their bed, with a beautiful look of peace on his face. He had
suffered another heart attack in his sleep. Many of Tom's loved ones
returned to say good-bye to him. Although he is gone, Tom Horton, and
Macdonald Carey, will never be forgotten.
The character of Dr. Tom Horton was
played by Macdonald Carey from 1965-1994