Lee Halpern, a former prostitute for Renee Divine, arrived in Llanview in 1987 looking after her employee, Cyndy London. Lee owned DynaWomen, an all-female company. Cyndy quit the company after Lee blackmailed her into helping destroy the Vernon Inn, which was owned at the time by Pamela Stuart Buchanan. Other employees, including Bianca Crawford and Cheryl Peterson, later helped Lee in her efforts to destroy the hotel. Lee eventually became business associates with Max Holden, with whom she also shared a brief romantic dalliance. Max eventually bought the hotel from Pamela and renamed it Holden Towers.

Lee befriended young Mari Lynn Dennison, who was the daughter of Joe Riley's twin- brother Tom Dennison, without knowing she really was her daughter, Milee. It turned out that Lee was in fact Carol Harper Dennison, Tom's former wife, who had been presumed dead in a car accident when Mari Lynn was young. At the time, Tom had thought his wife had returned to a life of prostitution and had left his wife, taking their daughter with him. Carol, meanwhile, needed extensive plastic surgery following her accident. She allowed her old self to die and took on a new identity, Lee Halpern.

Tom soon found out Lee was really Carol and tried to keep the truth from his daughter, but eventually Mari Lynn found out and the two started bonding as mother and daughter. Lee tried to support Mari Lynn's relationship with Rick Gardener. But when he suggested that Mari Lynn move away with him to Austria, Lee slipped steroids into his drink so he would fail the Olympics tests. Rick and Mari Lynn soon broke up.

Lee then got to know Charles Sanders, former U.S. Ambassador to the European principality of Mendorra, and the two flirted with each other for awhile. One night they flew off to Las Vegas and, while drunk, they got married. Charles died of a heart attack on their wedding night, however. Charles' wealthy family never accepted Lee and resented her for marrying him. Lee, meanwhile, managed to torment Charles' mother Elizabeth Sanders more than even Charles' first wife, Judith.

After Charles' untimely death, Lee and Tom started to restore their lost feelings for one another. Lee even moved into the carriage house on the Llanfair estate to be with Tom and Mari Lynn, who was entering a new relationship with Wade Coleman. Troubles came along when Lee's ex-lover Donald Lamarr came to Llanview and tried to get back at her. Lee learned that Donald was responsible for murdering mob kingpin Alex Crown. As they were lying in a hotel bedroom, Donald snapped and attacked Lee. Mari Lynn stepped into the room, screamed at Donald to get off of her mother and then pulled a gun on him. As Mari Lynn pulled the trigger, Donald threw Lee's scantily clad body in front of his, and she took the bullet. Lee was pronounced dead and Mari Lynn was put on trial for her murder, although she was eventually freed.

In April 2008, a woman bearing a striking resemblance to Lee appeared in Llanview under the name Janet Ketring. She was a private nurse and was helping disgraced FBI agent Lee Ramsey care for a bedridden and amnesiac Marty Saybrooke, who was believed to have died in a van explosion the previous December in Ireland. Then Lee Ramsey was killed in a botched attempt to steal the Mendorra crown jewels. Todd Manning discovered Marty in the aftermath of the shooting and secretly took custody of Marty. Todd coerced Janet, who was only concerned for Marty's well-being, to continue tending to Marty under his employ. For the sum of $1 million, Janet also agreed to keep Marty's existence a secret from the people, according to Todd, who wished to harm Marty. Neither Marty nor Janet were aware that Todd had raped Marty more than 15 years earlier when they were in college together. Both Marty and Janet came to trust Todd and his warnings about the danger to Marty's life. During a personal conversation with Todd about their families, Janet revealed that, like him, she was estranged from her loved ones - in particular, a daughter - and claimed she was "dead to them." Janet found a picture of Todd's sister, Viki Davidson, and Janet became anxious and said she didn't realize Todd's sister was "Victoria Lord." Todd asked if Janet knew his sister, but Janet quickly explained that she merely recognized Viki from the newspaper.

In October 2008, while trying to uncover the identity of the woman in Todd's home, Llanview Police Detective John McBain discovered that Janet was, in fact, a very-much alive Lee. John summoned Janet to the station and revealed that he knew about her past lives. Janet had faked her own death as Lee, like she had done many years ago as Carol, and then had gone to nursing school. Lee Ramsey had used his connections in the FBI to suppress any records of Janet's old aliases, making it more difficult to identify her. Janet played it cool with John and did not give up any information about Marty, even when John shocked Janet by revealing to her that Todd had raped Marty back when they were in college together. He also told her that Marty had friends and family who missed her, including a son. Janet was shaken and returned to Todd's house to find Marty dreamily writing about Todd and the baby they were planning to raise together - unaware that Todd was planning to steal his daughter Todd's baby and raise it as his own with her.

Janet eventually confronted Todd about his duping Marty and keeping her away from her son. But Todd said he knew about her true identity and threatened to expose her to all the people in Llanview whom she had deceived. Soon Todd forced her to assist in the planned kidnapping of Starr's baby. Janet went to the hospital and, wearing hospital scrubs, assisted Dr. Leah Joplin in the delivery of Starr's baby. Dr. Joplin told Starr that something was wrong with the baby and took her to her office, where Janet watched over the baby. But when Todd showed up and said he was calling off the kidnapping, Janet left the baby unattended to talk to him. Jessica, under the influence of alter Bess, snuck into the office and switched out Starr's healthy baby for the stillborn infant Jessica had delivered hours earlier. When Dr. Joplin and Janet returned, they found what they believed to be Starr's baby dead.

Janet left town, as Todd instructed, but reappeared on old friend Renee Buchanan's doorstep two months later. Janet said she was afraid that Todd would come after her and begged Renee to hide her. Renee agreed to let Janet stay in the guest house, and later convinced Janet to cooperate with the authorities so Todd could be punished for his crimes. In exchange for immunity, Janet agreed to wear a wire and get Todd to incriminate himself, but Todd didn't fall for it. Janet was taken into police custody to await testifying in Todd's trial. Meanwhile, Todd's attorney, Tea Delgado, had Todd print a front-page story in The Sun the day of the trial, exposing Janet's criminal history and multiple identities. After seeing the paper, Janet hit Police Officer Talia Sahid over the head and escaped from the safe house. Hours later, she ended up dead at Todd's house, stabbed in the heart with a knife from Todd's kitchen. Tea walked into the house and found Todd holding the knife and lying beside Janet's dead body. Worried that the cops would pin the murder on Todd, Tea told the cops that she had killed Janet in self-defense, and Janet's body was removed by authorities.