Five Things That Happened On June 19 In Soap History

In 1978, Jane Elliot made her General Hospital debut as Tracy Angelica Quartermaine. The Daytime Emmy winner told Soap Opera Digest in 2023 that she saw Tracy’s distinctive, sharp-tongued personality as the result of her collaboration with the executive producer who hired her, Gloria Monty, and then-Head Writer Douglas Marland, but noted that her character choices were also inspired by her real-life mother. “I think that actors draw on their lives, right? So, I’m looking around, and I’m looking for something to layer this character with and [I realize], ‘Oh, my God, my mother — that’s who it is, it’s my mother with the martini glass!’ My mother drank martinis and she smoked Chesterfield cigarettes in a Dunhill cigarette holder. Is that not a Quartermaine? That is so Quartermaine!”  

In 2006, All My Children’s Jeff Martin (John James) and Erica Kane (Susan Lucci) debated telling Josh Madden that they are his biological parents. Erica underwent an abortion on the show in 1972, but decades later, the show decided to introduce the character of Josh and the wild story by which he came to be born after evil Dr. Greg Madden stole the fetus from Erica and had it implanted into his wife, who birthed Josh.

In 2012, Lexie Carver (Renee Jones) passed away in husband Abe Carver's (James Reynolds) arms on Days of Our Lives after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Renee Jones had begun playing the role of Lexie in 1993, and it was her decision to leave the show, prompting Lexie's illness. As Lexie's health was flagging, Abe brought her outside to the garden. They discussed their son, Theo, and Lexie voiced her confidence that Abe would do a wonderful job with him once she was gone. Abe proposed that they renew their vows, which Lexie said was the most romantic thing she'd ever heard. She passed peacefully, and when Abe realized she was gone, he began to weep.

In 2018 on General Hospital, Drew Cain (Billy Miller) and Sam McCall (Kelly Monaco) finalized their divorce. The pair had originally tied the knot when they both believed Drew to be Jason Morgan, Sam's presumed-dead husband, but the union was declared invalid when the real Jason resurfaced. Sam professed her love for Drew and they tied the knot legally, but in time, Sam could not deny her lingering love for Jason, and she and Drew called it quits.

In 2023 on Young and Restless, Sally Spectra (Courtney Hope) was inconsolably anguished when she found out that her baby girl, Ava, had not survived childbirth. Adam Newman (Mark Grossman) had been faced with the terrible decision of choosing between Sally's life and the baby's when complications threatened the lives of both mother and daughter. With great difficulty, he tried to break the awful news to Sally. "During the C-section, there was a.... there was a complication," he began. Sally grew more upset and finally Adam confirmed the worst: "She didn't make it."