Max Holden
Jon Russell
Kelly's father
Paul's father

Tried to kill Dorian and her lover Dr. Toland
Tried to stab Jenny Vernon with a letter opener

Melinda first came to Llanview with her older sister Dorian, who became an intern in Llanview Hospital. When Melinda was a young girl she and Dorian rode on horses and raced. During the race Melinda, who was a promising young pianist, fell and her left arm was paralyzed. She could still play, but not as she could before the accident. Melinda and Dorian always believed that their parents died in a plane crush when Melinda hospitalized after her accident and that their older sister Addie had died from pneumonia at the age of 13.

Melinda wasn't completely healthy mentally, most of her life she was in an institution, but she could now be out since she was living with her sister and was seeing Dr. Marcus Polk on weekly basis. One day after an appointment with Dr. Polk, she met a young intern in the Hospital, Dr. Mark Toland and developed a major crush on him. She told Dorian about that, but Dorian, who was seeing Mark herself, acted as if she didn't know him and decided to keep her affair with him a secret from Melinda. When Melinda found out that her sister was seeing Dr. Toland herself, she had had enough of living in Dorian's shadow and decided to kill them both. While Mark and Dorian were making love in Dorian's room, Melinda came in with a knife and planned to stab them both, but fortunately she only scratched Mark's hand. After that incident she became catatonic and was institutionalized again, this time in the Compton Clinic.

After four years, Dorian got a call from Melinda's doctor, Dr. Overton, who told her Melinda was healthy enough to go home. Dorian went to see her sister right away, but was surprised when Melinda told her she didn't want to live in Llanfair with her. She was afraid Dorian would be over-protective of her and won't let her live a normal life. She wanted to stay in the clinic for more time, so when she did leave she'd never collapse again.

About a month later, Melinda decided to move to Llanview, but she didn't want her sister to know about it, she was afraid Dorian would try to control her life. She rented a room in Ina Hopkins's boarding house and found a job as a sales woman in a ski shop. Ina became Melinda's best friend and was there for her in the rough times.

One day, a nice doctor came to the shop, his name was Peter Janssen and he liked Melinda from the first moment he saw her. The thing Melinda didn't know was that her sister was also interested in Peter as well. Peter had no idea that the two were sisters since he never knew that Dorian's maiden name was Cramer. In the meanwhile, Dorian was informed by the clinic that Melinda had left and she was wondering where Melinda was. Why didn't she come to live with her? She was worried sick about her.

When Melinda came to visit Peter in his office, Dorian was there, too. Dorian was surprised to find that her sister was living in Llanview all that time and not only that, she was also dating the man Dorian wanted. The sisters were fighting over a man again, but this time Melinda was the one who won. Peter never wanted a relationship with her Dorian and proposed to Lynn (this was his nickname for her). Melinda was afraid Dorian would try to ruin things for them and the two eloped.

The couple returned and with time Dorian learned to accept their marriage. The problems began when Lynn heard that a famous piano teacher was coming to town, Bruno Weston, and wanted to be his pupil. She began practicing, playing the piano day and night compulsively and almost drove Peter insane. After a long time of preparing an audition tape, she finally sent it to him, but he wasn't thrilled at all and turned her down. Melinda was so ashamed, she couldn't bear the thought she had failed and told everybody that she'd succeeded.

Marco Dane found out about Melinda's lie and decided to blackmail her. Knowing that she's lying and Marco's threats all the time drove Melinda insane again and she checked herself back to the Compton Clinic. After a year there, Dorian declared her mentally incompetent.

While Melinda was institutionalized, Peter fell for another woman, his long time friend Jenny Vernon. He wanted to marry her as soon as possible and he needed a divorce from Lynn, but to get it he needed to prove she's sane. He brought her from the clinic to live with him and she stood up as matron of honor in her sister's wedding to Herb Callsion. When she learned Peter wanted to divorce her, she got insane again and threatened Jenny with a letter opener. Peter was lost and didn't know what to do. When Lynn heard a conversation between Marco, Karen and Peter about the baby switch she thought she'd gone completely crazy and asked Peter to go back to the clinic.

Peter went to Lynn's doctor to find a solution and Dr. Overton told him that since Melinda wasn't sane the at time of their wedding as well, the marriage can be annulled. Peter annulled the marriage while Melinda was institutionalized again for a long time.

In 1983 Herb Callison (Melinda's brother in law) came to visit her and she confirmed his suspicions that David Renaldi is indeed the same David who fathered Dorian's child, Cassie.

Melinda was let out of the institution in 1987 and since Dorian was now living in Mendorra, she moved in with her niece Cassie to Dorian's penthouse. After all the years of therapy, she was now stronger and even a little aggressive. She witnessed Dr. Donald Lamarr murder mobster Alex Crown and since Lammarr knew her medical history, he tried to convince her that she had gone insane again. At first the only one who believed her was Alex's son, Rob, but after Melinda dreamed that Donald murdered her, Cassie and her lover, Jon Russell also joined to try and prove it.

Their plan was that Melinda would pledge insanity and be admitted to Mountain View where Dr. Lammarr had worked, although Cassie was against risking her aunt's life. While inside Melinda dug up some details but not enough, she also became a good friend with Dr. Pringle who helped her a bit. She ran into Blaize Pardee there (Asa's grandma from the old west) and took her to Llanfair to meet Viki. Later when she returned she found out Lammarr was onto her, he conducted a psychotic experiment on her, which almost killed her, but fortunately she was able to escape and go to the police.

After that, Cassie and Rob stopped trying to prove it, but Melinda and Jon kept trying. While trying to prove Lammarr is indeed a murderer, Melinda and Jon had a short fling. When Cassie found out about it she threw her aunt out of the penthouse.

Jon and Melinda were able to prove Lammarr as a murderer during Mari Lynn's trial. They disguised a cop to look like the deceased Alex Crown and when the doctor saw him, he freaked and admitted he did murder him.

Melinda began working at WVLE and had short affair with the manager, Max Holden. She and Bo Buchanan were trying to find out who was the "Fraternity Row" stalker. After that, she decided to leave Llanview for good since Cassie also moved to Mendorra to be with Dorian. Melinda left town.

We can only assume that her mental state got worse again and she was institutionalized once again. In 1995 we learned that Melinda had a daughter Kelly, who Dorian supported all the years when Melinda was in institutions. Kelly lived alone with her mother in Paris until she was nine. After her mother tore up Kelly's doll's eyes because the name of the doll was Dorian, she was sent away again.

In 1997 Kelly decided to go visit her mother in her institution in CA. She was amazed how healthy she seemed and suggested she come to Llanview with her and her friend Ian Armitage. Melinda was afraid to go back and see Dorian, she was afraid she'd try to control her life all over again like she did in the past. Her desire to spend time with her now grown daughter won and they flew back to Llanview. Dorian insisted that Melinda would stay at her house. While there, whenever Cassie or Mel Hayes tried to talk with Melinda about the past, Dorian didn't allow her to speak.