For decades, Alice was the beating heart of the Horton family and her delicious donuts are still famous in Salem to this day. The grand

matriarch survived the Salem Stalker, a cancer misdiagnosis, husband Tom’s foray into poetry and her children’s extensive scandals. Alice

started the Horton tree-decorating gathering, and though she may have passed away in 2010, Salem will always remember her.

Dr. Tom Horton was one of Salem’s best, and his marriage to Alice never flagged in all their years together — even when it turned out in 1991 that it was invalid! The two raised five kids together, beginning a sprawling, dysfunctional family that was once the center of Days of Our Lives. Tom passed away in 1995 and Alice never loved another man after.

When Days of Our Lives started, eldest son Tommy was presumed to have perished in the Korean War. He was very much alive, but when he showed up with a new face in 1968, he thought he was a burn victim named Dr. Mark Brooks and almost married his sister, Marie. Yikes! After that was all sorted, Tommy tried reconciling with wife, Kitty, but she had moved on — quite a few times! So, after a whole lot of heartbreak, he moved to Hawaii. Aloha, we guess?

Tommy’s twin sister Addie was initially married to Ben Olson, but it wasn’t long before they ran off to Paris, leaving daughter Julie behind for Alice and Tom to raise. They eventually returned, only for Ben to pass away and Addie to fall for Doug. The two eloped and had Hope, though Addie developed leukemia. The good news: It went into remission. The bad news: She was run over by a car and killed.

Maggie’s beloved late hubby Mickey had a rough start. His first wife, Laura, became pregnant after little brother Bill raped her, then a bout of amnesia sent him out into the world to meet Maggie. They fell in love, but recovering his memories just led to a psychotic break as he tried to kill Bill. (Years before Uma Thurman!) But once things settled down, Maggie and Mickey built a life together and stuck it out right up until his death!

Tom and Alice’s youngest daughter Marie never really had much luck in love — but it was one failed relationship in particular that sent her to the nunnery. That, of course, was when she fell in love with and almost married Dr. Brooks… who was actually her long lost brother, Tommy! That’s enough to push anyone to take a vow of celibacy!

Learning presumed dead husband Tommy was actually alive was a tough pill to swallow — and even tougher since Kitty was in the middle of chasing after another man! Turns out, she’d cheated on Tommy. A lot. They divorced and, needing a new hobby, she blackmailed Bill with the knowledge that Mickey’s son Michael was actually his. But alas, a heart attack while fighting with Bill put him in jail and her in the ground.

Once upon a time, Salem practically revolved around Laura. Mickey and Bill fought over her, but it was Bill who won out in the end — despite the fact that he (let’s be perfectly clear here) raped her! They married and had two kids (not necessarily in that order) before she tried hanging herself at her dead mother’s insistence, putting her into a catatonic state for nearly two decades. She came back in the ’90s and Laura popped up here and there for years until Gwen accidentally killed her back in 2021. Probably accidentally. Maybe.

What can we say about Maggie? She was Mickey’s true love, turning his amnesiac eye away from Laura and forming a bond that endured until his death. Heck, their love was so strong, she was married to Victor for over a decade and we still think of her as Maggie Horton! These days, she’s still one of the backbones of the Horton family along with her “niece” Julie.

Former con man Doug Williams has been tied to the Hortons since he first popped up after meeting bad seed Bill in jail. He came to Salem intent on getting Susan Martin’s fortune from her, but instead ended up falling for Julie… but marrying her mom Addie! Luckily, as we all know, it worked out in the end — after Addie was struck by a car and killed.

Tommy and Kitty’s daughter Sandy struggled with the whole back-from-the-dead amnesiac father thing. But then, who wouldn’t? Things got even rougher for her after catching fiance Evan Whyland cheating and telling Maggie she could just kill him! She was a doctor by then and shortly after that declaration, was forced to operate on Evan. He didn’t make it. Eventually, she was cleared of murder and instead of going off to prison she went off to… wherever soap opera characters go when they fade away.

Julie’s big brother Steven moved to Paris with mom and dad, Addie and Ben, and stuck it out even after they returned to town. He made his own return in the late ‘70s, only to flee for his life after getting mixed up in drug smuggling and was never heard from again. Maybe he knows where he Sandy is!