Claire Ramsey, portrayed by Susan Pratt, arrived in Springfield in 1983 but left in 1986. Much to my surprise, she joined Guiding Light again in 2000. When Claire first arrived in Springfield, she got a job at Cedars. She started getting involved with Rick Bauer, but that didn't work out. It was only a brief fling anyway. Then she met Fletcher Reade. Fletch was nursing a broken heart over losing Hillary Bauer to Jim. Claire fell deep in love with him and soon they started dating. Fletcher was very good for Claire, he helped to bring out Claire's sense of humor and fun and she helped him to heal after Hillary's unexpected death. Claire and Fletcher worked on the Piper case together and it brought them closer romantically. When Fletch went to Beirut, Claire and then Ed and Mo Bauer, followed him there. Fletcher was dealing with the death of his daughter, who had been there. Ed and Claire later received word that Fletcher and Maureen had died in a bomb accident. They were of course both devastated. While grieving the lost of their beloved, Ed and Claire had sex. Later, back in Springfield, Claire discovered she was pregnant.

As you can assume, Fletcher and Maureen were still very much alive. They returned to their lovers but of course had no idea what had happened while they were away. Ed then discovered Fletcher had a vasectomy so there was no way he could be the baby's father. Ed realized the baby was his. Eventually Maureen found out about the baby too and she and Ed broke up. Claire and Fletcher also broke up and didn't reconcile again. Claire felt very sad and did everything she could to get Fletcher's attention, but he just wasn't interested anymore. Maureen and Ed however reconciled and tried to comfort Claire. After Michelle was born, Claire had a lot of problems so most of the child rearing responsiblities fell on Ed and Mo's shoulders. Claire didn't seem to care about her little girl at all. She wanted Ed to take care of Michelle, while she was out having fun and flurting with other men. Both Ed and Maureen were angry at Claire because of her selfish behavior and considered taking Michelle away from Claire.

Claire kept on ignoring Michelle. She started leaving her alone in the house when she was out. Rick found Michelle alone in the house and told Ed about it. Ed decided to fight custody of Michelle, making Claire furious. Then Claire got a job, taking care of Kyle Sampson's wife, Maeve Stoddard. She started falling for Kyle and tried many things to ruin Kyle's relationship with Maeve. She convinced Maeve that Kyle was having an affair with Reva, which was a lie. Maeve fired Claire as her doctor, but that didn't stop her. She convinced Kyle to help her in the custody battle. Claire later found out that Rick was taking drugs. She threatened to tell everyone about it, if he would not convince Ed to let her have custody of Michelle. She even told him she would get him fired if he didn't do what she wanted him to do. The next weeks were hell for everyone. Claire was a pain in the butt and on everyone's case, including Kyle and Reva's. It was very clear to everyone that Claire was very unstable and needed help.

Claire kept on threatening everyone and ignoring her child. Then she started to get abusive. There were many scenes were we could hear Claire yelling at Michelle and threatening to hit her if she wouldn't stop crying. One day, Ed and Maureen caught Claire trying to smother Michelle with a pillow. Claire lost custody of Michelle to Ed and Maureen. She denied there was anything emotionally wrong with her. Then she got in the middle of a life-threatening fight with Reva and psycho Caine Harris. Caine threw Claire of a bridge into the ocean. Claire was saved but she unfortunately lost her memory do to the shock. A dangerouse brain oporation was performed by Dr. Mark Jarret. Eventually Claire got better and got her memory back. She soon fell in love with Dr. Jarret and eventually they got married. Then Mark and Claire left Springfield. This was the end of 1986. Claire didn't return to Springfield until 2000. Desperate to forge a relationship with Michelle Claire's schemes seem contributed to the destruction of Michelle. Claire is currently involved with Alan Spaulding but I don't know if that is going to work out. Stay tuned.

Last updated 03/16/01. E-mail me with any comments or suggestions at addip@isholf.is