NAVIGATION
SUE ELLEN EWING
This fanlisting is for my favorite character on Dallas, Sue Ellen “Shepard” Ewing. Sue Ellen grew up without her father who she explains as an alcoholic. She was raised by her mother. Patricia wanted the best for her daughter, hoping she would married a rich man one day. Sue Ellen made straights A’s throughout high school and college. Sue Ellen made varsity cheerleading and had her choice of virtually any man on campus, hut it was Clint Ogden with whom she fell in love, and he didn’t fit into any of her carefully laid plans. She entered her in pageants after pageants. Leading her to the Miss Texas pageants. She was crowned as Miss Texas 1967. At the pageants, she captured the eyes of the future president of Ewing Oil, John Ross “JR” Ewing, JR. They courted for a few years due to Patricia’s dismay as she was hoping her daughter would married Billy. He was richer and more powerful than the Ewings. But Sue Ellen’s heart was captured by JR. They married in 1971 in the biggest social event of the year at Southfork Ranch. But their honeymoon night proved in disappointment. Sex hadn’t been what Sue Ellen thought it would have been. Over the next seven years, Sue Ellen grew into more of a depression as she wanted a child of her own. After JR continued his cheating ways, she find comforts in arms of Cliff Barnes (JR’s most hated enemy). In 1978, she was pregnant. She was ecstatic, and so were the Ewings. That is, until Sue Ellen, led up with more of JR’s unfaithfulness and roguery, resumed her affair with Cliff and JR. found out about it. In the following explosion between the two, Sue Ellen told JR. that the baby was probably Cliff’s, and that she was in love with him. The couple’s estrangement was complete. J.R. retaliated by destroying Cliff’s career and keeping Sue Ellen virtually a prisoner at Southfork. Angry, depressed, Sue Ellen’s latent alcoholism came roaring to the surface. She drank and drank and drank and didn’t care. She hated J.R., she hated that she couldn’t be with Cliff, and she hated herself. The Yellow Rose of Texas was bent on killing herself, drink by drink. J.R. had her locked up in Fletcher Sanatorium in Fort Worth for the duration of her confinement, and the experience nearly drove Sue Ellen crazy. She managed to bribe an assistant to bring her alcohol, and on a binge, following a visit from JR., she escaped from the hospital and was in a horrible car accident that sent her into early labor. She was seven months pregnant. The crash caused bleeding in her uterus and the placenta started separating. The doctors had to perform an emergency cesarean to save both Sue Ellen and the child. John Ross Ewing III’s life hung in the balance for a few days, but with little notice from Sue Ellen. She had slumped into a massive depression and could barely even feign interest in her son, or in anything, for that matter. Zombie-like, she returned to Southfork and was kept under careful guard by JR. The subsequent kidnapping and safe return of John Ross scarcely registered with her—she was. just too depressed, despondent. Her life was a shambles and there was nothing she could do about it. JR. tried to patch things up between them for the sake of appearances, but Sue Ellen openly hated him. Over the next months, he was crucial in her sorting out her feelings about her son and breaking through her depression. She came to love her son with an intensity that surprised even J.R.—particularly after they found out it was J.R.’s baby, not Cliff’s. At the Ewing Rodeo in 1979, Sue Ellen met rodeo star Dusty Farlow and, in the ensuing weeks, had a wonderfully passionate love affair with him. He fulfilled her every desire, emotionally as well as physically, and she began to plan her escape from J.R., taking John Ross with her to Dusty. She hadn’t been able to leave J.R. for Cliff because Cliff was too vulnerable to JR.’s power, but Dusty was the son of the immensely wealthy and powerful Clayton Farlow, who had enough resources to protect her. The problem was that if she divorced J.R., in light of her drinking history and this ‘desertion," the court would surely give custody of John Ross to JR. And so Sue Ellen started working on building her image as the perfect mother and devoted wife, while having a private investigator compile a file on JR.’s constant infidelities. (He was having an affair with Sue Ellen’s own sister, for starters.) J.R. caught on to what was happening and mounted his counterattack. He framed Sue Ellen, making it appear that she had started drinking again, and destroyed the investigator’s file on him. It appeared to all the Ewings that Sue Ellen had relapsed again, and they all clucked their sympathies to JR. Not being able to withstand the pressure J.R. was putting on her, Sue Ellen decided that she had to leave Southfork immediately—divorce hearing or no divorce hearing. When she went to meet Dusty to confirm her plan, she was met with the news that his plane had crashed en route to Dallas and he was dead. Sue Ellen was stunned. Her rising grief and despair said that her life had ended right along with Dusty’s, so she picked up a drink for real and didn’t stop. One day in 1980, Sue Ellen was told by her sister, Kristin, that she had shot JR. during a blackout. Plagued with guilt, Sue Ellen never left his side at the hospital. When the gun used in the shooting was discovered in Sue Ellen’s closet at Southfork, she was accused of attempted murder and taken to jail. The Ewings refused to bail her out. Someone else did. Who, Sue Ellen didn’t know. It turned out that Kristin had shot J.R. and framed Sue Ellen, who was so beaten by the experience that she wanted only to return quietly to Southfork and be with her son. She and JR. tried a tentative truce for a while, but when JR started playing around with Lucy’s fiancée’s sister, Afton Cooper, Sue Ellen angrily gave up on the marriage and told her husband that she would follow his style and seek her own romantic life. At Lucy’s wedding reception, Sue Ellen ran into Clint Ogden, who was still as much in love with her as ever. Sue Ellen and he resumed the passion of their college years, until she was confronted by Clint’s wife, who was so much in love with Clint that she offered to share him with Sue Ellen. Sue Ellen knew the kind of pain the woman was feeling and immediately put an end to the affair. After being followed for a number of weeks, Sue Ellen was shocked to find that her mysterious tail was Dusty. He had not died but had been crippled by the plane crash and, because he couldn’t walk, didn’t think he could be a full man for Sue Ellen. He had wanted her to go on with her life thinking him dead. He was the one who had posted her bail. Sue Ellen didn’t’ care whether he was in a wheelchair or not—she was joyous that he was alive—and it restored her desire to be alive as well. Alive and happy! She left JR. and dear Pam brought John Ross to her. and the two Ewings moved onto the Southern Cross Ranch with the Farlows. In the spring of 1981, Sue Ellen’s sister, Kristin, died in an accident at Southfork. It was tragic in that Kristin, addictive like Sue Ellen, had gotten herself in serious trouble with drugs. Despite Kristin’s indiscretion with JR.. Sue Ellen had loved her sister very much, and she mourned such a senseless, wasteful way for the young woman to die. There were problems with Dusty. Though he gradually learned walk again, even ride, he was impotent. which made him feel hopelessly made inadequate. Actually, all this turned out to be fortuitous. When these facts came or at the temporary custody hearing, they made Sue Ellen look like a saint an she was able to get custody of john Ross. (JR.’s case had been built on ground of adultery. Sue Ellen was loving. patient, and willing to forego sex, but Dusty couldn’t handle it, particularly after J.R. had hammered home the point to him that "My wife—she is still my wife—is a lady of tempestuous moods. Mostly sexual." The couple could not overcome Dusty’s frustration, and they lovingly ended the relationship. Sue Ellen moved off the Southern Cross and into her own condominium in Dallas at 56 Fayette Road. When her divorce from JR. came through the Honorable Jade William Parker awarded her a very generous settlement plus S5.000 a month in alimony and $1000 a month in child support. She was able to live in the style she had gotten used to at Southfork, though she was pretty miserable at first. Little John Ross was a comfort, heaven knew, but it ~as the first time in her life that she had lived alone. She tried to fend off the interminable loneliness by reading. crocheting. and watching television at night, but she was starved for companionship. She went on one blind date and the man came back to the condo and literally attacked her. Her friends’ husbands made passes at her. Clayton Farlow was a godsend in this period. Lie helped Sue Ellen with her finances and occasionally acted as her escort. He was enormously kind, attentive, amusing, and warm. ‘Clayton is very special to me," she said. He’s the father I never knew. And, right now, he’s probably the best friend I have." And she was right, though she did not realize that Clayton—Dusty’s father—had fallen in love with her. Sue Ellen and JR. were married again on November 24, 1982, at a lavish wedding at Southfork. They only had a two-day honeymoon, since J.R. was called back to business to try and buy a refinery for his half of Ewing Oil. Sue Ellen asked, and J.R. grinned his approval, that she share his work problems with him. She wanted to be a real part of J.R.’s life, which meant his life at Ewing Oil as well. She joined him in his quest to win the contest. Every aspect of the Ewings’ love—emotional, physical, even aloft spiritual—was being realized for the first time. However, Sue Ellen’s relationship with the rest of the family was not very good. She felt that they simply did not understand JR. and his motives the way she did. Her friendship with Clayton was severely strained—almost finished—when she asked his help on J.R.'s behalf. She had to oppose Ellie on the attempt to break Jock’s will. And her friendship with Pam and Bobby was on shaky ground because of the contest. It was very difficult for Sue Ellen. She loved all of them dearly, but her complete loyalty was to her husband. Until Holly Harwood. When this bombshell of an oil tycoon told Sue Ellen that she was having an affair with JR., Sue Ellen refused to believe it, dismissing it as Holly’s vengeance against her husband for business reasons. But then Holly told her to look for her lipstick on J.R.’s collar one night, and it was there, and Sue Ellen began to panic. But again, she believed in her husband, and confronted Holly, telling her that the ploy had not worked. One night, knowing that J.R. was at Holly’s house, Sue Ellen went over there and saw, right before her very eyes, J.R. making love to the woman. It nearly destroyed her. Not again, not like this, not when she and JR. had been so happy. She drove directly to a bar and, after only a moment’s hesitation, started pouring alcohol into her system. She wanted to die but was too afraid to. This was the only way out of her pain. She crashed at Clayton Farlow’s hotel until Miss Ellie came and took her back to Southfork. She did not stop drinking. When JR. tried to explain about Holly, Sue Ellen threw a drink in his face, grabbed his car keys and ran out of the house. She jumped into Ewing 3 and tore out of the driveway, with the family running after her. Mickey Trotter jumped into the front seat and, as they turned out of the front gate, a car hit them head on. Mickey went into a coma, while Sue Ellen was unhurt. With her marriage in ruins, her guilt over the car crash, Sheriff Washburn’s threats to arrest her for manslaughter, Sue Ellen tearfully continued to drink. At one point, she tried to apologize to Lucy for what happened, but the young woman rebuffed her, increasing her guilt. J.R. ordered all the liquor on Southfork locked up, but Sue Ellen still found cooking wine to drink. When J.R. confronted her, they had a horrendous fight, and Sue Ellen hurled the bottle at him, splashing wine all over the front staircase wall. The decorators came to redo the wallpaper the next day, and Dr. Danvers came to sedate Sue Ellen in the hope that she would sleep it off. That night, the wallpaper’s materials caught fire and Southfork was soon in blazes, with an unconscious Sue Ellen upstairs. Only the quick thinking and enormous strength of her brother-in-law Bobby saved her. In early 1984, as Sue Ellen was leaving Jenna Wade’s boutique, she was hit by a car and rushed to Dallas Memorial Hospital. When she came to, the doctors informed her that she had lost her baby. Baby? Sue Ellen hadn’t known she was pregnant, and even if she had, she still wouldn’t have known who the father was—J.R. from that one night, or Peter from that one afternoon. The first part of her plan was to a scare tactic to let J.R know she meant business. She hired a private detective to follow J.R and Mandy, just close enough that he would be spotted and J.R and Mandy would wonder what stunt Sue Ellen would pull next. Sue Ellen had found a new strength in her revenge for J.R and like a cat with the cream she was enjoying every moment and using every opportunity that came her way. Sue Ellen was sent a mail catalogue from Valentine's Lingerie, to JR's disgust. He says that no self-respecting woman would ever be caught dead posing for one of those magazines. This gave Sue Ellen an idea...she visits Valentine Lingerie later that day and finds the owner there. She says she would like to buy 90% of his business for $ 50,000 - way more than it's worth. She says he can keep 10% of it as incentive to become her silent partner and follow her lead. In May of 1987 the Ewings were in trouble, Ewing Oil was about to be closed by the Justice Department putting a great strain on the family, especially J.R. But to make matters worse for Sue Ellen, Mandy had shown up again in Dallas, declaring she wanted to help Sue Ellen put Valentines back on the map. But Sue Ellen was no longer a fool to be played with, she was very aware of Mandys game.......and that was to take J.R back away from Sue Ellen. In a final confrontation Sue Ellen tore up Mandys contract with Valentines declaring "I'm cutting you off you viper....come back to help me? you came back to help yourself to my husband" Mandy then left Texas but left stating one day she would return. After J.R lost Ewing Oil , Sue Ellen remained the faithful wife supporting her husband with his new ventures. But she was becoming increasingly frustrated with Valentines and wanted to expand. J.R put her in touch his stock advisor. Sue Ellen met with him and his assistant, Nicholas Pearce. There was an instant attraction between Sue Ellen and Nicholas but Sue Ellen was in this for business and was dedicated to J.R. This obvious attraction continued between Sue Ellen and Nicolas but Sue Ellen refrains from allowing it to go any further. If she did she would be no better than J.R and she remembered quite clearly what is was like to be cheated on. But all this changed when Sue Ellen spotted J.R with his latest flame Kimberly Cryder. "Sex and hotels...what a combination" Sue Ellen declared when she spotted them together. Sue Ellen now no longer had to keep her feelings for Nick at bay and two began a passionate affair. In May of 1988 Sue Ellen began to realize that J.R was attempting a takeover of WestStar and she wanted to stop him at all costs. With Nicks help she managed to put the pieces together and work out a way to stop J.R. With Kimberly Cryder on side Sue Ellen was about to play her trump card. AT the Weststar board meeting JR tried to take center stage as Chairman of the Board. Kimberly comes in and tries to rain on his parade by saying that she's inherited her father's shares of the company, but JR is undeterred - until Sue Ellen walks in to stand with Kimberly. No one amongst the major shareholders seems to be behind JR after that. Kimberly says that her group controls 31% of the company, and JR counters that he controls about 34%. Nonplussed, Kimberly brings in one more friend who controls a substantial piece of stock...Jeremy Wendell, who the board unanimously reinstates as Chairman and CEO. JR picks up John Ross from a camping trip and tells him that his mother has left them for another man. John Ross affirms his desire to remain at Southfork with his father, and when Sue Ellen arrives the next day to get him, JR tells her that his son is safe from her - and that's the way things will stay. Sue Ellen visits a lawyer to remedy her situation, who says he'll get the wheels rolling to have a judge instruct JR to produce John Ross within three days. She and Nick celebrate their new life together that night but she's still distracted about her son. Meanwhile, JR enrolls John Ross in a secluded private school, claiming that the boy is under threat of being kidnapped. The next morning, JR is served with papers ordering him to produce his son. He immediately tears them up. Sue Ellen tells Nicholas that she plans to take John Ross away from the ranch, with the help of Braddock police. She finds JR calmly waiting for her, and he tears up Sue Ellen's court order, presenting one of his own, overturning hers for 30 days. She rushes back to Nick's place, who suggests that they use a PI to locate John Ross. Sue Ellen worries that JR will poison John Ross's mind against him in the meantime. J.R fell out with his family and moved into a hotel in Dallas. In desperation of find John Ross, Sue Ellen and Nick confront J.R at his hotel suite. J.R takes out a gun demanding they leave. A fight breaks out between Nick and J.R as Sue Ellen watches helplessly on. During the fight J.R accidentally pushes Nicholas over the balcony to his death. In shock and confusion Sue Ellen picks up J.R`s gun and shoots him three times. Years of anger came gushing out in one sudden moment, without thinking she wanted to end her pain and to end it by killing J.R. J.R survives with flesh wounds and Sue Ellen full of anger wants J.R charged for the murder of Nicholas Pearce. J.R wants to charge Sue Ellen for attempted murder. After some discussion both decide to drop the charges for the sake of John Ross. Lucy now back in town sides with Sue Ellen and tracks down John Ross and hands him over to his delighted mother. Sue Ellen is overwhelmed to have her son back and ever grateful to Lucy. Sue Ellen moved into a new home with John Ross but she sensed his unhappiness as she informed him she would never live at Southfork again. Sue Ellen decides to do whats best for her son and allows him to stay at Southfork with the Ewings , her only condition is that J.R sign a contract that allows her full custody. J.R agrees. Leaving her son was the most painful decision Sue Ellen ever had to make, after all these years of fighting over her son, for her to keep her son she was handing him back to the man she hated more than anything. But she loved John Ross dearly and it was his happiness that counted. Over this time Sue Ellen becomes friendly with Jeremy Wendell due to their mutual hate of J.R. December 16th 1988 is a historic day for Sue Ellen, with J.R out of town her divorce from him is finalized. The most heated and twisted relationship of all time is finally over, giving Sue Ellen a new sense of freedom. Jeremy Wendell visits Sue Ellen's office and is in a mood to celebrate. He even offers her a diamond bracelet and says he has plans to marry her one day. Sue Ellen lets Jeremy know her feelings quite clearly. Bruce Harvey returns to Dallas with the profits from the movies. Sue Ellen attends the Oil Barons Ball with Harvey as her escort where she meets J.R`s new wife Cally for the first time. Cally informs Sue Ellen that doesn't seem to be the drunk J.R described her as. In a fit of rage Sue Ellen confronts J.R giving him a right hook knocking him to the floor for all to see. Bruce wants Sue Ellen to buy the Hollywood film studio but she says she doesn't want to move to Los Angeles to run it. She decides to purchase a smaller Dallas studio instead. Sue Ellen falls upon a plan to make a move about her life with J.R based on diaries she has kept throughout the years. She meets Don Lockwood, a director from London who will make the movie. Over the next few months Sue Ellen and Don grow closer and closer, the movie brings them together as Don begins to understand the horrid life she led with J.R. Don was sensitive and kind, everything J.R wasn`t, it was only natural she would fall in love with this man and him likewise with her. With the movie complete Don asked Sue Ellen to move to England with him. At first she wasnt sure but then she decided that it might be the best thing for her. Her main concern was leaving behind John Ross. After a painstaking decision Sue Ellen decided to make the move and leave Dallas behind her. On May 19th 1989 Sue Ellen gave her final blow to J.R, her final revenge after all these years of misery. She took J.R to a movie theatre and showed him the film of their life together. J.R sat in shock as he watched his life go by before his very eyes. AT the end of the movie JR told her to burn it, she informed him she would keep in a vault and if he ever crossed her or if she just felt it, just for laughs she would show the world. With that Sue Ellen left with Don for England. In February of 1991 Sue Ellen married Don in small village in England. It was a quiet ceremony with a few family and friends attending. Lucy Ewing attended passing through on her travels. Sue Ellen had never been happier and she was for the next five years. But over a period of time Sue Ellen felt a need to be back in the USA, she loved England but it was never home and Don did not care much for Texas. Sue Ellen did have her son with her but she was growing increasingly bored with little to do. In 1996, Sue Ellen and John Ross finds out about JR’s death. Sue Ellen headed back to Dallas with John Ross, this was not easy for her. But it was something she had thought about for years, her marriage to Don was over and many ghosts had been laid to rest. She had always wondered what it would of been to face J.R again but that was not going to happen. Not now he was dead. But amazingly J.R was still alive and had faked his own death to secure a takeover again of WestStar and gain control of Ewing Oil. Sue Ellen found herself still attracted to him, that old chemistry was still there but many years had passed and this was a very different Sue Ellen. J.R soon made a pass at her but she pushed him away calling him a "bastard" but soon found herself in a passionate embrace. J.R managed to secure his control of Westar but Sue Ellen was working with Bobby to stop him taking back control of Ewing Oil from Cliff Barnes. Bobby took 50% of Ewing Oil for himself and in a dramatic twist Sue Ellen took control of the other 50% making her a partner in Ewing Oil. Sue Ellen gleefully informed J.R she now owned half of what was once his daddy's company and she would now stay in Dallas to enjoy it. Sue Ellen spent the next few years learning the oil business with Bobby's help. She lived and breathed Ewing Oil and was determined to make it number one at any cost. Over those years Sue Ellen grew closer and closer to Bobby, she has always said she had married the wrong Ewing and now she felt confused regarding her feelings for her ex brother in law. She had always felt attracted to Bobby but in April of 1998 these were at fever pitch. But Sue Ellen soon realized that she was confusing her deep friendship for something more and nothing became of it. Sue Ellen Ewing is now one of the most powerful women in America respected by many and feared by most. When she sits and recalls her early days at Southfork, that first drink, her time in the sanatorium , she can hardly recognize that was a life she once led. But they are important memories for her, she hangs onto them, she needs them, they are a constant reminder of who she once was...and who she will never be again.