Credit: Howard Wise/JPI
Given that The Young and the Restless’ Claire is plotting away to wreak havoc on boss Nikki, we sorta doubt that she will ever make it to Denver for the get-together that she is planning with sister Casey Reed. But even the mention of Nikki’s long-gone-from-Genoa-City sibling has left more than a few viewers going, “Huh?
If you weren’t watching the soap back in the late 1970s and early ’80s, you could easily never have heard of Casey. But back in the day, Roberta Leighton’s character was a key player. Initially, Casey and Nikki both lived with their mother. Casey, a doctor, worked at Snapper Foster’s medical clinic and, as most women did, fell for him. Unfortunately, she had a fear of sex and also an overwhelming concern for Nikki, who at the time was a hellraising teenager.
After the sisters’ mom was killed in a car crash, dad Nick returned to Genoa City, triggering Casey’s memory of being raped by him. When she went to confront the sicko, she found him trying to do the same thing to Nikki, who wound up putting an end to both him and his misdeeds.
From there, Casey began to heal — to the point that she started a relationship with Lucas Prentiss. She also considered reuniting with Snapper. Ultimately, she broke things off with Lucas because he wasn’t quite over wife Leslie and agreed with Snapper’s ex Chris Brooks to keep him at arm’s length until he could stop waffling.
Casey played her last major storyline in 1981, when she was terrorized by a stalker… who soon decided that he’d prefer to terrorize Nikki. Since then, the doc has returned to Genoa City now and again for visits, but that’s about it.
