General Hospital Star Genie Francis Celebrates A Laura Milestone

General Hospital, Genie Francis, and the name “Laura” are all synonymous with each other and have been since the late 1970s. At one time, the name Laura went hand in hand with the word “Luke” but Laura and Francis stood on her own without Luke when she first premiered on the show and she does so again today.

Congratulations, Genie Francis

According to Sony’s getTV Twitter account, it was 44 years ago this week that a 14-year-old Genie Francis taped her very first scenes as Laura Vining, the teenage daughter of Lesley Williams Faulkner. When Lesley first tracked down the daughter she thought was dead but then allowed to live with her adoptive family, The Vinings, she was living on a commune and furious at Lesley for giving her up.

That is how Francis’s journey with General Hospital began and now the soap is taking the character back to those auspicious beginnings. Laura’s paternity is finally being explored for the first time in decades as she learns her biological father, Gordon Grey, had two sons.

One of them is ruthless mobster, Cyrus Renault (Jeff Kober), the man responsible for putting her daughter, Lulu, in a coma. Will Denise Alexander’s Lesley soon return to Port Charles to help her daughter deal with this news? (The other brother is Southern lawyer, Martin, played by soap vet Michael E. Knight.)

During those early days, Laura was paired with Kin Shriner’s Scotty Baldwin, then an innocent law student, and now a man embroiled in covering up a murder he really didn’t mean to commit. On Monday, Shriner retweeted getTV’s post and simply said, “Nice run.”

Although their lives have taken different paths in Port Charles (Scotty can be a little shady, but still well-meaning, and Laura is now the town’s mayor and also its conscience), the pair still crosses paths every once in a while and that closeness and chemistry are still there as it was at the beginning. Soap Hub sends congratulations to Francis for 44 years of Laura and hopes to see many more. General Hospital (GH) airs weekdays on ABC. Check your local listings for airtimes.