GL FLASHBACK: LESLIE JACKSON BAUER

Though Rick rarely speaks of her, he did have a mother (daughter Leah is even partially named after her; Leslie + Felicia = Leah).



Leslie Jackson Bauer first appeared in Springfield in 1966, as played by Lynn Adams, an actress whose own parents, Rosilind Gould and Robert K. Adams, had appeared on the radio version of GL. Adams left the role in 1971 to play Amy on The Secret Storm, and was briefly replaced by Kathryn Hays (Kim; ATWT), before Barbara Rodell assumed the role. In 1973, Adams returned to play Leslie for three more years. (Adams is pictured above with Robert Gentry, who played Ed Bauer from 1966 to 1969, and again from 1997 to 1998.)

The daughter of master surgeon Dr. Stephen Jackson, Leslie grew up motherless and certain that she was her father's last priority. She proceeded to fall in love with her father's protegee, Dr. Ed Bauer, who didn't treat her any better then her father had and eventually dumped Leslie so that he could concentrate more fully on his work -- just like her father did.

Joe Warner, another resident who felt jealous of Dr. Jackson's obvious fondness for Ed, tried to horn in on Leslie in an attempt to get her father's attention, but when he realized that Leslie and Ed still had feelings for each other, stepped aside so the pair could marry.

Soon after, Ed's widowed brother, Mike, returned to town along with his young daughter, Hope. Seeing a lot of herself in the motherless child, Leslie became very attached to Hope -- and her father. Ed, in the meantime, had become an alcoholic, who not only beat his wife, but was also responsible for a hit and run. As a result, he lost his job at the hospital and left town to lick his wounds, falling into an affair along the way. When Ed returned, sober and eager to put his life back together, Leslie felt sorry for her husband and took him back. Ed, however, continued his affair, and was ready to divorce Leslie, only to learn that she was pregnant.

Leslie gave birth to a son, Frederick (then called Freddie), but when she learned about Ed's ongoing affair, threw him out of the house and forbade any of the Bauers from seeing her child.

One marriage (to Holly's father, Stanley), widowhood and murder trial (she wasn't guilty) later, Leslie was ready to finally marry Mike.

The newlyweds managed to withstand the arrival of Leslie's presumed dead mother, as well as the revelation that Stephen wasn't her biological father. But they couldn't overcome a drunk driver, who struck Leslie with his car in the summer of 1976.

Her last words to Mike were, "Tell Freddie I love him. Tell him I think he's a wonderful boy, and he's going to grow up to be a fine man like his father and uncle. Mike, you have been a wonderful husband."