Donald Hughes was the eldest son of Chris and Nancy Hughes. Climbing up the social ladder was important to Don. Don became a lawyer, like his father.
Donald Hughes was the eldest son of Chris and Nancy Hughes. Climbing up the social ladder was important to Don. Don became a lawyer, like his father.
Donald Hughes married Janice Turner Whipple, who was a widow with two grown daughters, Alice and Debbie. Nancy never approved of Janice, so Donald and Janice moved to Texas. After Janice died, Donald moved back to Oakdale. Donald and Ellen Lowell had been on and off through the years and he proposed to her. She said yes, but later told him she couldn't marry him after all as David Stewart had proposed to and she wanted to marry him. Donald then became engaged to Sara Fuller, but she died before they married. Donald also dated Amanda Holmes, Sara's daughter, for awhile. However, Amanda left town knowing that Donald wasn't really committed to her.
Don moved to California but returned to Oakdale after his father suffered a heart attack. Nancy wanted Donald to get together with Jennifer Ryan, because all these years she'd been trying to get Bob and Lisa back together. However, Bob was too in love with Jennifer, so Donald started dating Lisa himself. Lisa seemed more interested in Dr. Wally Matthews and Don ended up moving back to California.
When Donald next moved back to Oakdale, joining the firm Lowell, Hughes & Colman, he found Lisa had married Grant Colman. Joyce Colman, Grant's ex-wife, was doing all she could to break up Lisa and Grant. Joyce and Don started seeing each other. Joyce had had a son by Grant, who she gave up for adoption. His name was Teddy Ellison. He later came back to Oakdale as a young man named Ryder Hughes.
Lisa tried to fix Don up with Mary Ellison, Joyce's son's adopted mother, but that didn't work. It was difficult to get Donald to make a committment, but finally he proposed to Joyce. They married.
When Donald went to Switzerland on business, Joyce had a one-night stand with Ralph Mitchell, one of Don's clients, and became pregnant. Ralph wasn't interested in marrying Joyce, so Joyce told Don they were having a baby. She ended up having a miscarriage, but never told Don it wasn't his child.
Mary had been Don's secretary for a long time. She loved Don, but it went to further. She started seeing Ralph Mitchell and they got engaged. Ralph and Don were good friends. Don was upset over the loss of the baby, so Ralph decided to tell Don that it wasn't his child. Ralph just couldn't handle seeing his friend so upset. Joyce couldn't have Ralph telling Don though, and decided to kill Ralph. Instead, she ended up shooting and paralyzing Don! Joyce made up a story about a prowler. The truth all came out when Don overhead it on an intercom system. Don forgave Ralph, but not Joyce.
Joyce overheard Ralph telling Don that Joyce should be committed, and Joyce flew into a rage. She kidnapped Teddy, said goodbye to him, returned him to Mary, then left town. On her way out of town her car went off a bridge. Her body wasn't found.
Don fell in love with Mary, but Mary planned on marrying Ralph. He told Mary he was going to move back to California as he couldn't take it, seeing her married to Ralph. Ralph felt Mary was in love with Don and he decided to break off the engagement.
This cleared the way for Don and Mary to get engaged. Joyce, who everyone assumed was dead, came back to town very much alive. She decided to divorce Don so he could marry Mary. She had ulterior motives though, and she did all she could to get close to her son, Teddy. Joyce was successful in breaking up Mary and Don. Mary moved back to Laramie but got into a bad car accident and Grant ended up with Teddy. This pleased Joyce, as her and Grant were getting closer again (by this time Lisa had divorced Grant to try and win Bob back).
Joyce and Grant became engaged (again), but Grant left her and Oakdale after one too many lies. Don also left Oakdale. He moved to Laramie, won Mary back, and they married.
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