In 1989, Adam Chandler was determined to produce his own blood heir, so he slept with Dixie in the Chandler boathouse and she became pregnant. Dixie gave birth to Junior, and Adam plotted to secretly adopt him. Brooke would never know the child was his. But when Junior was born, Dixie refused to give him up, demanding that Adam make a choice between her and Brooke. Adam told Dixie she was his choice.
Brooke overheard Adam and Dixie's conversation and was disgusted. She packed her bags and went to Jackson Montgomery, who helped her win half of Adam's fortune. Scrambling to secure his legacy, Adam married Dixie. He then attempted to drive Dixie insane and get her to commit herself to Laurel Hill, a mental institution. If his plan was successful, Junior would be solely Adam's. Tad realized what Adam was up to and helped Dixie escape from the hospital. Tad and Dixie married.
Tad was presumed dead in 1990, when a bomb exploded as he struggled with Billy Clyde on a railroad bridge after saving Dixie. After living in California with amnesia, Tad returned to Pine Valley with Brooke's help in 1993.
In 1995, Dixie and Tad married again. The following year, Junior told Dixie he saw Tad kissing Liza. Dixie soon divorced Tad and moved to Pigeon Hollow with Junior.
In 1998, Adam got a court order for temporary custody of Junior using stalker Camille Hawkins as a reason. Dixie moved back to Pine Valley with Junior and eventually decided to stay. Lee Hawkins, bent on revenge against Adam for the death of his wife Joy (which Adam was not responsible for) kidnapped Junior and Hayley; Junior escaped with Hayley's help.
The next year, Dixie and Tad were married a third time, and Adam became jealous of Tad's influence over Junior. He tried to put Junior in a boarding school, but Tad and Dixie found out in time to stop it.
Junior and some of his friends formed a band in 2000, called DreamStreet, and won a competition at PV High. But by year's end, Junior began to spiral out of control.
Dixie's involvement with Dr. David Hayward sent Junior (who asked from thereon to be called JR) spiralling out of control. He began to hang around with some questionable classmates and his behavior became more troubled. Junior paid a classmate to write a term paper for him. Dixie was concerned that Adam's influence taught JR to buy his way through life.
JR began acting out because of his anger towards Dixie and his pill popping became more frequent when he started hanging with Marcus, Sweeney, and crew. He stole Adam's car after overhearing Dixie speak to Judge Stanton on David's behalf. Hayley ended up getting into the car with JR while he was under the influence and he crashed into a tree. Luckily, Hayley and the baby were not harmed. Adam tried to cover but the police learned that JR was driving and he was sentenced to probation and community service.
JR frequently skipped out on his community service, but Adam covered for him. JR and his friends decided one night to break into David Hayward's room and steal drugs from David's medical bag. They went joyriding with David's drugs, and one of JR's friends nearly overdosed.
David tricked JR into admitting on tape that he broke into David's room and stole drugs, and David used the tape to blackmail Adam into bribing the Judge presiding over David's trial. Adam was forced to sleep with Judge Kaye Campobello, and JR walked in on his father in a compromising position with the "honorable" Judge.
JR attempted to run away, but Liza convinced him not to. Disappointed time and time again by his father's philandering ways, JR sought comfort in bed with stranger Frankie Stone, a confused teen girl, who ended up dead that night. JR was questioned, but was not a suspect in her murder.
JR was devastated in 2002, when his mother Dixie died tragically in a car accident overseas. Her body was never recovered, and though JR struggled with the urge to numb the pain with drugs, JR overcame and leaned on his father and Tad for support.
Laurie Lewis was smitten with JR, when they met in their senior year of high school. Laurie feared that their different upbringings would keep them from having a lasting relationship, and it started looking like she was right!
Laurie was working at a catering service when the service was hired to cater a charity ball at the Chandler mansion. Wanting to spend time with her, JR offered to pay more than the catering service, and Laurie was insulted and left the party. JR apologized, but it became apparent that Laurie and JR just didn't see things the same way.
Laurie's father Doug didn't see eye-to-eye with JR's father Adam, since it was Doug's being laid off as a janitor from Chandler Enterprises that contributed to the Lewises' precarious financial situation. Doug thought that JR was just like his father and didn't deserve Laurie. After Laurie's mother died, and Laurie's siblings left, Laurie was all Doug had as a motivation to keep going.
Doug sometimes hit Laurie, and JR stepped in to defend her. Laurie hated the abuse, and her father's drinking, but she knew she could never leave. When JR had the opportunity to go to Harvard (thanks to a sizeable donation to the school from Adam), Laurie encouraged him to go. But JR didn't want to be bought into college. JR didn't want to leave Pine Valley or Laurie, either.
Adam offered to pay Laurie's way into Harvard if it meant JR would go too. But Doug refused to let Laurie take handouts from Adam Chandler, and Laurie was upset that Doug interfered because it may have been her only chance to get into an Ivy League school.
JR and Laurie continued to have differences, and Laurie found herself able to confide in JR's stepbrother Jamie. Jamie understood Laurie, and she found him easy to talk to. Laurie was stunned when Jamie kissed her! Jamie's ex, Joni, spied the kiss and spilled the truth to JR! He ran away in March 2003 to join the crew of a tramp steamer.
JR returned to Pine Valley with a new wife, Babe. Believing Babe to be a gold digger, Adam has attempted to break the two up, to no avail. JR was elated when Babe broke the news that she was pregnant!
After months of suspicious behavior, JR was shocked to learn that Babe and Jamie had met before JR introduced Babe to the family. Confronting them, Jamie claimed that he and Babe had slept together. Babe told JR that Jamie had hit on her, but that she has always been committed to him.
JR decided to believe his wife, and when Jamie wouldn't negate his claims that he slept with her, JR cut all ties with his brother. JR also learned that his wife had a past -- she revealed that she was married before JR, to a man named Paul Cramer (unknown to JR, Babe was still legally married to Paul)! More suspicious of Babe than ever, he engineered a meeting between Jamie and Babe where he learned that they had indeed slept together.
Furious, JR demanded a paternity test on his unborn child. The results came back and JR was named the father (unknown to JR, Babe had Paul Cramer ensure the test results read that JR was the father). Elated at the prospect of having a son or daughter, JR reconciled with Babe. JR and Jamie also reconciled.
Babe was soon stranded in a remote cabin during a flash flood with fellow expectant mom Bianca Montgomery. Bianca went into labor and Babe helped deliver Bianca's daughter, Miranda. Soon after, Babe went into labor and managed to get in contact with her ex-lover, Medivac Paul Cramer.
Paul delivered Babe's child, a boy, and soon after drugged Babe. Paul gave the baby boy (later named Ace) to his childless sister, Kelly Buchanan (who resides in Llanview, Pennsylvania) and prepared to tell the world that Babe's child died in a helicopter crash (which he staged).
After staging the crash, a frantic JR came on the scene and demanded to know where his child was. Panicked, Paul told JR that Miranda was his child (Bianca was unconscious since shortly after Miranda's birth, and thus could not confirm or deny anything). Babe, drugged thanks to Paul and delirious with infection, was not able to recall giving birth to a boy due to her fuzzy memories. JR immediately fell in love with "his" daughter, who he named Bess.
Krystal, Babe's mother, started to suspect that Paul Cramer lied and that Babe's child actually died. Tad Martin, whom Krystal was dating, had a similar suspicion and conducted a DNA test in secret on Bianca, Babe and Bess. Krystal secretly switched the DNA test results. When the results proved Babe and Bess were mother and daughter, only Krystal knew that Bess was actually Bianca's daughter, and Babe's child had died. After weeks of trying to keep the secret, Babe finally learned the truth.
Babe wanted to tell Bianca, but saw how much her husband loved Bess. The thought of taking Bess away from him, and telling him that their child had died, ripped Babe's heart in two. She loved JR. But Bianca was her best friend. Babe made the most difficult choice of her life -- she chose her husband's happiness over Bianca's.
What Babe didn't realize was that JR was secretly plotting against her. He had realized that Babe's marriage to Paul Cramer had never been annulled and Babe knowingly lied about it. JR swore to get Babe out of his life and keep Bess for himself. JR drugged Babe in an attempt to get her to sleep with his brother Jamie. It didn't succeed and Babe almost died. Eventually, Babe discovered JR's sins and realized he hated her. A guilt ridden Babe prepared to tell Bianca the truth about her daughter. Once again, fate intervened.
Babe ran into Kevin Buchanan and his son, Ace. Feeling a maternal draw to the child, Babe soon learned of Paul's connection to the baby and the mysterious circumstances of Ace's birth. Babe was convinced the baby was hers and soon got DNA test results that proved it. However, Babe couldn't come forward and reclaim him, because to do so would imply that she knew she had Bianca's child, and JR would use that information to gain sole custody. Babe knew that a child raised by the Chandlers would become emotionally corrupted, just as JR had been. Babe struggled with a way to tell Bianca the truth while protecting her own son's future.
Babe confessed everything to Jamie. Jamie suggested that they let Bianca know the truth and kidnap Ace from the Buchanans. Babe left notes for JR and Bianca explaining that Bess was Miranda, but omitting the part about JR's son being alive. Babe and Jamie then kidnapped Ace (who they renamed James) and went on the run. Feelings between the two deepened as they outran the authorities. Jamie swore to Babe that he would be a father to James, and protect mother and son from any harm.
JR burned Bianca's note, and she remained ignorant to the truth. Realizing that Bianca had not learned the full story, Babe made arrangements for Bianca to meet her in Florida, where she would tell Bianca face to face. There, Babe finally told Bianca that Bess was Miranda. She revealed how Paul Cramer had switched the babies, and she had kidnapped her son from Llanview.
Furious, Bianca slapped Babe and ordered her out of her sight. Bianca planned to take Miranda and leave, but JR intervened and after a verbal spat, Bianca accidentally tripped and fell off a balcony. She slipped into unconsciousness.
Tad (who had learned everything after Krystal confessed, leading Tad to dump her) told Erica that Miranda was alive. Armed with the truth, Erica was determined to reunite Bianca with her daughter.
JR resides in the Chandler Mansion, at 300 River Rd. in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania.
