Stephanie Wilkins

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Stephanie Wilkins Collins Pace Wyatt was a fictional character on the long-running American Soap Opera Search for Tomorrow. She was played from 1974 to 1984 by actress Maree Cheatham and from 1984 to 1986 by actress and writer Louise Shaffer.

Incidentally, this marked Louise Shaffer's return to Search after being one of three actresses the others being Kathryn Walker and Pamela Murphy, to play the absolutely maniacal Emily Rogers Hunter.

[edit] Jo's biggest enemy

Stephanie Wilkins Collins Pace Wyatt came to the fictional community of Henderson with her stepmother, Ramey Weskitt, and her young daughter Wendy (Andrea McArdle, later Lisa Peluso) after divorcing a man named Dave Wilkins (Dale Robinette). She had a brief affair with Dr. Tony Vincente, who at the time was married to Joanne Gardner.

She was a newly-hired nurse at Henderson Hospital who was assigned to look after Jo's daughter, Patti, who was dealing with a very difficult pregnancy. However, her interference in Tony's life, notably by trying to pass off Wendy as his, (Wendy was Dave Wilkins's daughter) inevitably led to a strain between him and Jo.

In fact, Stephanie and Jo were considered to be bitter enemies. She had married twice after her divorce from Dave Wilkins. She first married Clay Collins, the brother of Wade Collins, whom upon his death, became very wealthy; and Walter Pace, the father of Jennifer Pace Phillips; who had caused so much grief for Jo's family, especially when she killed Jo's sister, Eunice Gardner Wyatt.

This led up to Stephanie marrying John Wyatt, after her divorce from Walter Pace. She married him simply out of spite to Jo, since John had been interested in her, since she reminded him of his beloved Eunice.

Stephanie's mothering skills tended to be somewhat pushy, especially since she wanted Wendy to marry into wealth, like she herself did. So, she was quite dismayed to find that she married poor artist Keith McNeil (Craig Augustine). However, after divorcing Keith, Wendy married wealthy Warren Carter, whom the ambitious Stephanie found to be more suitable. The thing was Warren had been married to her best friend, Suzi Martin. Stephanie recovered with a long relaxing affair with the debaucherous Bobby Bero.

Sadly, Stephanie was murdered by a mysterious person in 1986. Her murder was never solved.