Mary Worth, the queen of the soap opera comic strips, had a humble beginning in 1934 when she was known as Apple Mary. Martha Orr created the Apple Mary feature for the Publishers Syndicate, obviously inspired by the character of Apple Annie in Frank Capra's hit comedy of the previous year, Lady for a Day. By the late 1930s, with a new artist and a new writer, Mary was dispensing advice to the lovelorn and the strip had changed its title to Mary Worth's Family. In the early 1940s yet another artist took over and a few years later the title was shortened to just plain Mary Worth.

In its earliest incarnation, the strip dealt with the efforts of a kindly, motherly, street corner apple peddler to survive the stresses of the Depression, look after her crippled young nephew Denny, and act as a Good Samaritan to...