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Paul Raven

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As a result of being on television (she has been in big dramatic shows like Robert Montgomery's, and on Your Hit Parade and many others), offers began to come from the Hollywood studios. Lynn was excited over the first one for only one reason - and it had nothing to do with a trip to Hollywood or the idea of becoming a movie star. "If I made a picture in Hollywood," she asked, "will they let me in at our neighborhood movie whenever I want to, without paying?" Her mother assured her that she wouldn't be singled out for any special privileges, and somehow the whole idea lost its enchantment for her. It was just as well, because her daddy didn't like the prospect of having his wife and daughter so far away part of the time, and Barbara Loring was unwilling, too, to upset their family life.

Producers have wanted her for Broadway shows, but have been turned down. "The hours would be all wrong, and we would both be away from home too much," Barbara sums it up. Lynn adds, "I get sleepy even now by eight o'clock, so how could I stay up late every night? Only when I do an evening radio or television show can I stay awake - and that's not often, so I'm pretty excited." Normally, she's asleep a little after eight, except on Friday and Saturday nights, which are special enough to give her an extra hour or so of stay-up time.

On Search for Tomorrow, work becomes fun for a little girl who truly enjoys being that other little girl, Patti, and who thinks her family on the show is almost as nice as the one at home. In fact, when both Bess Johnson and Cliff Hull (Grandmother and Grandfather Barron) went off on their respective vacations last year, Lynn broke down and cries - "because I knew I was going to miss them terribly." When Mary goes, Lynn counts the days until she comes back.

Mary takes her to school when Barbara is busy, or picks her up after classes if Barbara can't make it. Lynn goes to a private school because, on days when she appears on the program, she can only attend the afternoon sessions, and must make up the work by putting in extra time with a tutor. Mary helps, too, by going over the homework with her. Her mother and her big brother Neil take over when she gets home, but she really needs little outside help. "I think Mary makes more fuss over Lynn's high marks than I do," Barbara laughs, "but we're both proud that her lowest seems to be 98. She's a good student, and particularly advanced in English - because of her reading, I suppose, and because of the many brilliant people she has been thrown together with in her work."

Days she is on the show, Lynn reports to the studio at 8 A.M., rehearses until 9:30, then goes for a walk in the fresh air until close to broadcast time. Sometimes she comes back early to go over her homework, or make funny masks out of newspaper, or play Scrabble or checkers. After the show is off the air at 12:45, she has lunch, and then goes off to school. Days when she isn't in the scripts, she keeps morning school hours as well as afternoon.

Playtime is 4:30, outdoors with the other kids in her building or around the neighborhood. Somehow or other, she works in her piano practice, her ballet and tap lessons (she has been studying these for the past two years), and this year she will begin to take some singing lessons. A pretty big schedule, but Lynn is a healthy child whose 64 pounds nicely balance her 4'3'' of height.

Somehow, too, she finds time to answer her fan mail, all by herself, and to give time to her fan club, made up of children who admire her. "I wouldn't want anyone else to answer my mail, especially when mothers of sick children write, or letters come from hospitals or older people. I like to write my own way, so it will sound like me."

Lynn is still amazed that people recognize her, although she herself is always excited when she meets some favorite of movies or TV. She and Barbara recently spied one of their favorite actresses in a Fifth Avenue store early one morning, when few people were about. "Do you think she would mind if I asked for an autograph?" Lynn asked. "I don't think so," her mother said, "because there are so few around. It won't start requests. Just go up to her quietly."

The star was annoyed. "I don't give autographs, little girl," she told Lynn. "if I gave you one, others would ask." And she turned away. Just then another child got off the elevator with her mother, spied Lynn, called to her, "Patty, may I have your signature? I watch you all the time."

If Lynn signed with a little extra flourish, she could be forgiven - because out of the corner of her eye she could see the big star trying to figure out just who this little girl really was!

Last summer, when the family was on vacation, the women who did their laundry had a son who acted as Barbara's caddy on the golf course. Lynn played a few holes, then he stared at her and said how familiar she looked, but he couldn't figure out why. "Are you sure I didn't caddy for you before?" he asked. Barbara finally broke down and suggested that he might have seen Search for Tomorrow on television. "Why, you look like Patti Barron!" he shouted to Lynn. "You are Patti. Just wait until I tell my mother whose laundry she's doing!"

Even Mary Stuart has to take bows for Lynn occasionally. The kids back in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Mary's parents still live and where she visits, don't ask if Mary is Joanne Barron. Instead, they want to know if she's "Patti Barron's mother." Mary is only too happy that she can say yes. Incidentally, Mary's parents are also proud of their little "granddaughter." Adding them to Lynn's own three grandparents and her two on the show, Lynn has a total of seven - way over the usual quota!

At this moment, however, Lynn has only one daddy, Charles, who is a lawyer and the executive of a ship repair company. Her daddy on the program died - not really, of course, but in the script - and Joanne Barron hasn't yet found anyone else she can love as she did Patti's father. The day that Keith passed away in a hospital scene, both Mary and Lynn stayed away from the set. In the first place, they liked the young actor, John Sylvester, who played him, and now he would be out of the script and the show. In the second place, the whole thing had become very real to them.

Mary hurried out to a restaurant, to brood over a cup of coffee and to hide her emotion from everyone else in the cast. Lynn retreated quietly to her dressing room to shed a few tears that no one could see. Even though she had read the script beforehand, and knew it was only part of the Search for Tomorrow story, that day, it all seemed to be really happening.

Lynn's daddy didn't feel quite so unhappy about it, however. "I think he was a little glad she had only him for a daddy again," Barbara Loring laughs. "Sometimes, he would tease her and say, 'Well, you certainly loved your other daddy in the show today. I saw you hug and kiss him. Lynn knew he was only fooling, but she would reassure him that she loved him best. 'Well, I don't know,' he would insist. 'I saw you, and you certainly snuggled up to him.'"

Lynn's two mothers, Barbara Loring and Mary Stuart, don't even tease her about her shared affections. Each knows she has her own place in the little girl's heart. As for Lynn herself, she is still marveling at her luck in having two wonderful mothers - her real Mommie, and Mary, her mother on Search for Tomorrow.

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I wonder how long Mary and Lynn stayed in touch after she left in 61?

Also,was she ever approached to return,especially considering the trouble they had in successfully filling that role.

Lynn was lured back to daytime for Return To Peyton Place,but was taped in LA,where she was married at the time to Roy Thinnes.

When tomorrow comes, what will it bring?

Will it be Winter,will it be Spring?

Will a prayer be answered?

Will the sun rise for you?

Be it pleasure or sorrow,we'll search for tomorrow...

That vocal theme was used occasionally in the mid to late 70's.

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I wondered that too. I can't remember if Lynn commented when Mary passed away.

I can imagine that Lynn may not have wanted to ever go back, but considering Secret Storm got Jade Rowand back, you never know.

It's still a bit off to me when I see Jacqueline Schultz as Patti, although I guess it wasn't as bad as it could have been, since Patti had no children on the show (which would have pointed out the age issue more). I have a harder time with the women who play Liza and Suzi in the last year...they got on my nerves in the flood episodes, quite a bit.

Who was Suzi exactly? Cynthia Gibb played her before this other woman right?

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Suzi was Jo's niece. She was the daughter of the late Eunice Wyatt from her earlier marriage to Doug Martin,Scott Phillip's father, I think Suzi came about when Ann Williams became pregnant in real life.

Poor Suzi had a hard time of it. She lost her father when Doug died and gained a stepfather in John Wyatt. When Eunice was murdered Suzi stayed with John,who then married Stephanie who had a daughter Wendy. Wendy and Suzi became close. Then John died which left Suzi with Stephanie. I think at some point there was tension between Stephanie and Jo as to who would take care of Suzi.I think she ended up with Jo.

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Thanks. For some reason I thought Jo and Stephanie fought over Wendy. I guess it was Suzi. That makes more sense.

I was reading a 1973 soap magazine and they bemoan the firing of Ann Williams, saying Eunice shouldn't have been killed off. This was the death that wasn't really a death, and for some reason her murder was faked, right? I think saynotoursoap and FrenchFan mentioned this.

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+1

She was irritating me so much I almost had to turn it off, I couldn't take anymore. :lol:

They were well eager to get rid of Ann Williams in the 70s, weren't they? Seems bizarre since it essentially left Jo marooned in a familial sense.

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They were also supposedly trying to get rid of Jo for much of the 70's. I think she almost died not long before Eunice was killed off.

What I never understood is why Jo kept the name "Tourner." It's not like she was widowed - she divorced him. To me that's kind of weak for her to go out with the name of some guy she was done with. I think it would have been more interesting to see her go back to her maiden name.

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