Sue Ellen Ewing

Introduction

She is the most poised of the great Texas beauties. She’s Sue Ellen Ewing, J.R.’s wife, John Ross’s mother, the President of Daughters of the Alamo, the chairperson of the fund-raising committee for the underprivileged, and a founder of the Dallas Home for Wayward Boys. But she’s also an alcoholic and an adulteress, and an excellent actress because of it.

It’s hard to imagine her any other way than what she projects at a luncheon at Gardens Restaurant or at an exclusive showing at Madam Claude’s — a lady, a gracious Southern belle, a savvy, sophisticated woman of extraordinary hospitality — but when Sue Ellen falls off her stage, she falls hard.

Whether the real woman is the one in public or the one in private, no one can be sure, but there is one sure thing: all the world can love Sue Ellen, except Sue Ellen herself.

Early Life

Sue Ellen Shepard was born and raised in Dallas. Her father was an alcoholic, and soon after Sue Ellen’s sister, Kristin, was born, he deserted the family. A short time later, he died.

Her mother, Patricia, with a modest income of her own, never remarried but chose, instead, to concentrate on her lovely daughters. As Sue Ellen recalls:

“Mama wanted her girls to have everything she wanted and couldn’t get by herself. We were like dolls, created just to fulfill Mama’s wishes. Mama wanted wealth, position. She decided to get it through us. It wasn’t in Mama’s plan to fail.”

Sue Ellen was reared to be the best, to marry the best, and, growing up as a born people-pleaser, she did exactly as she was told.

She was a straight-A student in high school, with particular talents in French and cooking — a combination which her mother readily approved of. She developed an awesome set of social graces, which, though gratifying to her mother, made Sue Ellen a little scared inside.

Oh yes, she enjoyed being well liked — and perhaps worshiped a little — but the Sue Ellen she was projecting was not necessarily the Sue Ellen she felt inside. People thought her extroverted, when, in fact, she was quite shy. She felt uncomfortable meeting new people but found herself mechanically offering a radiant smile and what she hoped was an agreeable persona.

It was an act, and she knew it, but that was the way life was. Everyone pretended that way, right? Her job was to please her mother and others, and, in exchange, she would grow up and be happy. And so, as insurance for the future, Sue Ellen banked on being perfect.

College Years & Clint Ogden

When she entered the University of Texas at Austin, she was quickly launched as the reigning queen of the campus — unheard of for a freshman. She was undeniably the most gracious, beautiful creature to appear on the social scene for some time.

She was invited to join all of the sororities and she moved into one her freshman year, where she had two roommates — which she liked, since she had never been away from her mother and sister before.

Sue Ellen made varsity cheerleading and had her choice of virtually any man on campus, but it was Clint Ogden with whom she fell in love, and he didn’t fit into any of her carefully laid plans.

Clint was a poor student — their dates usually consisted of picnics with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches — and Sue Ellen did the unthinkable: she found herself wanting to physically consummate their love.

Clint cut basketball practice and Sue Ellen cut cheerleading and the two checked into a four-dollar-a-night motel with a bright neon sign, and the deed was done. Sue Ellen was elated with this side of life and felt no guilt, as she loved Clint and wondered how to manage to marry him (her mother would have a stroke!).

But it was not meant to be.

Miss Texas & Meeting J.R.

At her mother’s urging, Sue Ellen went for the highest honor for a young woman in Texas: to be Miss Texas and represent the Lone Star State at the Miss America Pageant.

She won the local competition in Dallas hands down and went on to grace the stage in Fort Worth at the Miss Texas Pageant in July 1967.

The lights were bright on stage, but Sue Ellen could see that there at the judge’s table sat the infamous J.R. Ewing, heir to the throne of Ewing Oil.

She was attracted to him instantly, as he was to her. They formally met after the pageant, after Sue Ellen was crowned Miss Texas.

Sue Ellen had many suitors other than Clint, men with a lot of money, so that wasn’t what overwhelmed her about this man. It was his eyes.

“They always seemed to be hiding secrets,” she said later. And when he spoke, his powerful voice and hearty self-assurance sent splendid shivers down her spine.

Their first date was to dinner at Donahue’s (Sue Ellen politely ordered a spinach salad but couldn’t eat, she was so nervous), followed by the best seats at the Dallas Symphony.

J.R. was bored by classical music — he stared at Sue Ellen the entire performance — but Sue Ellen was enthralled by the music and by this man beside her.

With her stunning beauty and his dashing good looks, they made an incredible couple, turning heads everywhere they went in Dallas.

Courtship & Marriage to J.R.

Poor Clint got lost in the shuffle. Sue Ellen had met her man. She loved J.R., and he was rich, powerful, and distinguished. He would satisfy both her and her mother’s needs. Only, how to catch him?

Sue Ellen played it exactly the way her mother had always told her — hard to get, and under no circumstances should she go to bed with him until they were married. It was not easy to maintain her ladylike reserve with J.R. — his animal magnetism made her dizzy with desire at times — but he respected her wishes.

Eventually the strategy worked and J.R. asked her to marry him. Sue Ellen gleefully accepted, but was terrified when J.R. brought her to Southfork to meet his parents, the legendary Jock and Ellie Ewing.

To her nervous surprise, Ellie liked her right off, and J.R.’s daddy soon did too. Oddly enough, it was Sue Ellen’s mother who was not so keen on the marriage. She wanted Sue Ellen to marry Billy Frampton, heir to an empire in oil and coal and diamonds and uranium.

But Sue Ellen, exasperated, had it out with her, and Mrs. Shepard finally settled for J.R. as a son-in-law. The Southfork wedding was one of the biggest and most expensive in Dallas to date.

White orchids, flown in from Hawaii, cascaded over the ranch, and hundreds of guests attended. Sue Ellen was positively glowing, and J.R. was at his most handsome — such a happy, prosperous couple, with their whole lives ahead of them.

Disillusionment & Infertility

The couple went off on their honeymoon, and Sue Ellen was in for a baffling disappointment. Sex with J.R. was nothing like it had been with Clint. There just wasn’t anything romantic or passionate about it.

She blamed herself, thinking that she didn’t turn J.R. on, for he never lingered, never ventured beyond just doing the act and getting it over with. She loved her husband and felt ashamed for expecting anything more.

So she said nothing, and wondered if it would change in time. It was clear, however, that it would not be up to her to change anything. J.R. took on a pained expression if Sue Ellen made even the slightest sexual overture.

The following seven years at Southfork were ones of slow letdown for Sue Ellen. She was increasingly sad, year after year, when she didn’t conceive.

She had herself checked out and the doctors said no, there was nothing wrong with her, but she dismissed the obvious conclusion, as she could never even broach the subject to J.R.

Instead, she channeled her energies into volunteer work. Sue Ellen adored Miss Ellie, and together they made an awesome team, civically and socially.

After Jock retired and Ellie wished to spend a little more time at Southfork, Sue Ellen began to emerge as the new social matriarch of Dallas.

As she once said, “There was a time I used to live for those meetings. They were all that gave meaning to my life.”

Despite her efforts to keep active, Sue Ellen became increasingly afraid — afraid that this was all there was ever going to be for her.

It was agonizingly apparent to her that J.R. did not love her anymore, although she was still very much in love with him, that J.R. would never be sexually interested in her, and that she was destined not to have a child.

And the family gatherings, where Sue Ellen and J.R. did their best acting, trying to maintain the façade of total happiness, were becoming some kind of hideous joke that the family was all in on.

If Ellie and Jock asked one more time when they were going to have a child... And then it was worse — they stopped asking.

Alcoholism & Emotional Collapse

How desperately she wanted a child! That longing, that pain, that inadequacy, combined with the feelings of being trapped, pushed Sue Ellen toward drinking a little more at these family gatherings.

There was simply no other way to get through the masquerade; she just didn’t have her old energy.

It was infinitely easier to drink a lot of wine and be physically present, smiling no less but mentally miles away, fantasizing about how life could have been.

Sue Ellen reluctantly accepted J.R.’s infidelities. She had to after they were exposed to the whole family during the Wanda Frick from Waco incident in 1978 at Southfork.

But still she didn’t give up hope for a child. Finally, when her sister-in-law Pam announced that she was pregnant in 1978, Sue Ellen considered adopting a child, but she found that it could take years.

Desperate, she located an unwed mother, Rita Briggs, and paid her expenses at 6245 West Street in Dallas, planning to pay Miss Briggs a lot of money to take the baby when it was born.

J.R. found out about it and, outraged, put an end to the arrangement. Crushed, Sue Ellen emotionally withdrew from the family, solemnly watching them over the rim of a glass.

Cliff Barnes & Pregnancy

And then Sue Ellen met Pam’s brother, Cliff Barnes, and fell in love with his earnest, gentle ways. Or so she said.

Cliff once asked her, “Well, if it's not money” — he didn't have any — “what is my fatal charm?”

Sue Ellen thoughtlessly replied, “Maybe it’s because J.R. dislikes you so much.”

Shortly after ending the affair, Sue Ellen discovered that she was pregnant. She was ecstatic, and so were the Ewings.

That is, until Sue Ellen, fed up with more of J.R.’s unfaithfulness and roguery, resumed her affair with Cliff and J.R. found out about it.

In the following explosion between the two, Sue Ellen told J.R. that the baby was probably Cliff’s, and that she was in love with him.

The couple’s estrangement was complete. J.R. retaliated by destroying Cliff’s career and keeping Sue Ellen virtually a prisoner at Southfork.

Angry, depressed, Sue Ellen’s latent alcoholism came roaring to the surface.

“I am not your wife, J.R. A wife is someone who shares her husband’s life, who cares for him and is cared for in return. That hardly describes our relationship.”

Sanatorium & Birth of John Ross

She drank and drank and drank and didn’t care. She hated J.R., she hated that she couldn’t be with Cliff, and she hated herself.

J.R. had her locked up in Fletcher Sanatorium in Fort Worth for the duration of her confinement, and the experience nearly drove Sue Ellen crazy.

She managed to bribe an assistant to bring her alcohol, and on a binge, following a visit from J.R., she escaped from the hospital and was in a horrible car accident that sent her into early labor.

She was seven months pregnant. The crash caused bleeding in her uterus and the placenta started separating.

The doctors had to perform an emergency cesarean to save both Sue Ellen and the child.

John Ross Ewing III’s life hung in the balance for a few days, but with little notice from Sue Ellen.

She had slumped into a massive depression and could barely even feign interest in her son, or in anything, for that matter.

Zombie-like, she returned to Southfork and was kept under careful guard by J.R.

The subsequent kidnapping and safe return of John Ross scarcely registered with her — she was just too depressed, despondent.

Kristin, the Shooting & Aftermath

One day in 1980, Sue Ellen was told by her sister, Kristin, that she had shot J.R. during a blackout. Plagued with guilt, Sue Ellen never left his side at the hospital.

When the gun used in the shooting was discovered in Sue Ellen’s closet at Southfork, she was accused of attempted murder and taken to jail. The Ewings refused to bail her out. Someone else did. Who, Sue Ellen didn’t know.

It turned out that Kristin had shot J.R. and framed Sue Ellen, who was so beaten by the experience that she wanted only to return quietly to Southfork and be with her son.

She and J.R. tried a tentative truce for a while, but when J.R. started playing around with Lucy’s fiancé’s sister, Afton Cooper, Sue Ellen angrily gave up on the marriage and told her husband that she would follow his style and seek her own romantic life.

Dusty Farlow & Escape from Southfork

At Lucy’s wedding reception, Sue Ellen ran into Clint Ogden, who was still as much in love with her as ever. Sue Ellen and he resumed the passion of their college years, until she was confronted by Clint’s wife, who was so much in love with Clint that she offered to share him with Sue Ellen.

Sue Ellen knew the kind of pain the woman was feeling and immediately put an end to the affair.

After being followed for a number of weeks, Sue Ellen was shocked to find that her mysterious tail was Dusty. He had not died but had been crippled by the plane crash and, because he couldn’t walk, didn’t think he could be a full man for Sue Ellen.

He had wanted her to go on with her life thinking him dead. He was the one who had posted her bail.

Sue Ellen didn’t care whether he was in a wheelchair or not — she was joyous that he was alive — and it restored her desire to be alive as well.

Alive and happy! She left J.R., and dear Pam brought John Ross to her, and the two Ewings moved onto the Southern Cross Ranch with the Farlows.

Custody, Divorce & Clayton Farlow

In the spring of 1981, Sue Ellen’s sister, Kristin, died in an accident at Southfork. It was tragic in that Kristin, addictive like Sue Ellen, had gotten herself in serious trouble with drugs.

Despite Kristin’s indiscretion with J.R., Sue Ellen had loved her sister very much, and she mourned such a senseless, wasteful way for the young woman to die.

There were problems with Dusty. Though he gradually learned to walk again, even ride, he was impotent, which made him feel hopelessly inadequate.

When these facts came out at the temporary custody hearing, they made Sue Ellen look like a saint and she was able to get custody of John Ross.

The couple could not overcome Dusty’s frustration, and they lovingly ended the relationship.

Sue Ellen moved off the Southern Cross and into her own condominium in Dallas at 56 Fayette Road.

When her divorce from J.R. came through, the Honorable Jade William Parker awarded her a very generous settlement plus $5,000 a month in alimony and $1,000 a month in child support.

Clayton Farlow was a godsend in this period. He helped Sue Ellen with her finances and occasionally acted as her escort.

“Clayton is very special to me. He’s the father I never knew. And right now, he’s probably the best friend I have.”

Cliff Again & Emotional Turmoil

J.R. was surprisingly nice to Sue Ellen when she moved back to Dallas. It frightened her that even then, so soon after their divorce, she still felt attracted to him.

She began to see him on occasion. He was sincere, courteous, extremely gentle, and positively loving, though at first she thought she must be imagining it.

There was something undeniable: a sexual electricity flowing between them.

Sue Ellen found herself, in spite of herself, falling in love all over again.

But when Bobby came to see her, asking for her help in completing his and Pam’s adoption of Kristin’s son Christopher, all of her old wounds about J.R.’s past affairs opened up.

Full of anger over the past, she held herself in check against him, and started seeing Cliff Barnes.

She cared mightily about Cliff, but the old love she had once felt for him was gone — he had changed somehow.

Cliff kept talking about the fortune he was going to make on a deal and kept dreaming of their future together.

He asked her to marry him in the spring of 1982. Sue Ellen almost accepted, but decided to think it over.

Days later, Cliff was back at her house, using their relationship to get Sue Ellen to bail him out of a mess of trouble when his alleged deal fell apart.

She was shocked, then livid, and then threw him out.

Remarriage to J.R.

What to do? She loved Dusty, but he now belonged to someone else. She was no longer in love with Cliff, and she did not love Clayton.

She was in love with J.R., but he was such a scoundrel. How long could it last? She gambled that he had changed.

Sue Ellen and J.R. were married again on November 24, 1982, at a lavish wedding at Southfork.

They only had a two-day honeymoon, since J.R. was called back to business to try and buy a refinery for his half of Ewing Oil.

Sue Ellen asked, and J.R. grinned his approval, that she share his work problems with him.

She wanted to be a real part of J.R.’s life, which meant his life at Ewing Oil as well.

Every aspect of the Ewings’ love — emotional, physical, even spiritual — was being realized for the first time.

However, Sue Ellen’s relationship with the rest of the family was not very good.

She felt that they simply did not understand J.R. and his motives the way she did.

Until Holly Harwood.

Holly Harwood & Relapse

When this bombshell of an oil tycoon told Sue Ellen that she was having an affair with J.R., Sue Ellen refused to believe it, dismissing it as Holly’s vengeance against her husband for business reasons.

But then Holly told her to look for her lipstick on J.R.’s collar one night, and it was there.

One night, knowing that J.R. was at Holly’s house, Sue Ellen went over there and saw, right before her very eyes, J.R. making love to the woman.

It nearly destroyed her.

“Not again. Not like this. Not when she and J.R. had been so happy.”

She drove directly to a bar and, after only a moment’s hesitation, started pouring alcohol into her system.

She wanted to die but was too afraid to. This was the only way out of her pain.

She crashed at Clayton Farlow’s hotel until Miss Ellie came and took her back to Southfork.

She did not stop drinking.

When J.R. tried to explain about Holly, Sue Ellen threw a drink in his face, grabbed his car keys and ran out of the house.

She jumped into Ewing 3 and tore out of the driveway, with the family running after her.

Mickey Trotter jumped into the front seat and, as they turned out of the front gate, a car hit them head-on.

The Fire at Southfork & Recovery

Mickey went into a coma, while Sue Ellen was unhurt. With her marriage in ruins, her guilt over the car crash, and Sheriff Washburn’s threats to arrest her for manslaughter, Sue Ellen tearfully continued to drink.

At one point, she tried to apologize to Lucy for what happened, but the young woman rebuffed her, increasing her guilt.

J.R. ordered all the liquor on Southfork locked up, but Sue Ellen still found cooking wine to drink.

When J.R. confronted her, they had a horrendous fight, and Sue Ellen hurled the bottle at him, splashing wine all over the front staircase wall.

The decorators came to redo the wallpaper the next day, and Dr. Danvers came to sedate Sue Ellen in the hope that she would sleep it off.

That night, the wallpaperer’s materials caught fire and Southfork was soon in blazes, with an unconscious Sue Ellen upstairs.

Only the quick thinking and enormous strength of her brother-in-law Bobby saved her.

The Ewings moved into the Quorum Hotel while Southfork was being repaired.

Still agonized with guilt over Mickey, Sue Ellen persisted in drinking.

But when she overheard J.R. and Pam discussing Walter Driscoll — a former business associate and now mortal enemy of J.R.’s — and the fact that he had confessed to purposely running into the Mercedes at Southfork because he thought it was J.R. driving the car, Sue Ellen’s drinking binge was over.

She hadn’t caused the accident after all.

She was nearly wild with outrage that J.R. had not told her about Driscoll’s confession, that he had let her go on thinking she was responsible for the accident.

Sue Ellen made three key decisions at this point.

One, that she would not ever drink again, and if that were to be possible, then at all costs she had to keep an emotional distance from J.R.

Two, she would have separate bedrooms, and they would be man and wife in name only.

And three — most important — she was going to devote herself to nurturing John Ross back to the healthy, happy boy he was supposed to be.

Her little boy, she realized, after all of the recent drama — the fire, the fighting, her drinking — had been left with scars. He was withdrawn, shy, slipping away from them.

Peter Richards & Emotional Betrayal

Over J.R.’s protests, she took John Ross to a child psychologist. Then she talked J.R. into joining her at the next session.

J.R. went along with the psychologist’s recommendation that John Ross attend a special camp with counselors having strong backgrounds in psychology.

Little John Ross fell in love with his counselor at camp, Peter Richards, a twenty-year-old SMU student.

And Peter Richards, a softly handsome, sweet young man, fell in love with Sue Ellen.

Given her loneliness, Sue Ellen cast more than a casual eye at him, but she reprimanded herself, reminding herself of his age, his future, of the fact that she was married, and that it simply wouldn’t work.

Sue Ellen is a highly sensual, passionate woman.

After weeks of being sexually attracted to Peter but not going near him, she was beside herself.

One night, before the Oil Baron’s Ball in 1983, she seduced J.R. and, afterward, had no desire to go near him again.

Peter was lovesick. He’d follow Sue Ellen. He’d show up at Southfork.

He even played on his relationship with John Ross and Lucy Ewing to get to see Sue Ellen.

Sue Ellen was torn. She did not want to get involved with this young man, but she did not want Peter to stop working with John Ross either.

After a rejection by Sue Ellen, Peter didn’t show up at camp, and little John Ross got hysterical.

Peter disappeared again later, dropping out of school, and Sue Ellen frantically tracked him down.

She promised to see him platonically if he promised to go back to school and continue working with John Ross.

However, she didn’t bargain on her own passion and feeling for him and, against her better judgment, ended up in bed with him.

It was the first and last time.

She couldn’t bring herself to do it again.

It was just wrong. There was no future.

She still had strong feelings for him, but she didn’t want him to get hurt, nor did she want herself to be hurt, which would be inevitable.

Miscarriage & Exposure

In early 1984, as Sue Ellen was leaving Jenna Wade’s boutique, she was hit by a car and rushed to Dallas Memorial Hospital.

When she came to, the doctors informed her that she had lost her baby.

Baby?

Sue Ellen hadn’t known she was pregnant, and even if she had, she still wouldn’t have known who the father was — J.R. from that one night, or Peter from that one afternoon.

J.R. thought it was his.

Peter thought it was his.

Sue Ellen, painfully, tearfully, had to tell Peter that it could have been J.R.’s.

Sadly, Peter said how much he wanted to have that baby, how he dreamed of being with Sue Ellen and bringing up their child.

Sue Ellen was dumbstruck.

Did this boy really think that it would have worked, with nearly twenty years’ difference in their ages?

She decided it had to end right there.

It was over. Done. Finished.

Peter had to understand that.

To her bewilderment, J.R. then hired Peter to work privately with John Ross at Southfork.

J.R. befriended the lad, encouraged him to join the family in their activities, and seemed to push him on Sue Ellen.

But Sue Ellen was firm in her resolve and warily watched all of this, warning Peter to be careful of J.R. and under no circumstances let him think that they had been anything other than what they now were: a counselor and the counselee’s mother.

Lucy got smashed at a Ewing party and accused Sue Ellen and Peter of having something going.

To Sue Ellen’s amazement, J.R. defended her and reprimanded Lucy for thinking such a thing.

Peter, feeling guilty, came close to telling J.R. about the affair, but Sue Ellen stopped him.

It didn’t matter, because it turned out that J.R. knew anyhow.

And that’s why J.R. proceeded to have the Braddock police sergeant, Harry McSween, plant drugs in Peter’s jeep, have him arrested and thrown in jail, and then bailed him out.

He told Peter that if he didn’t go away, stay away from his wife, then J.R. would see to it that he would go to prison.

And he added, if Sue Ellen didn’t move back into his bed, be a wife to him again, the same thing went: Peter would go to prison.

“She had been beaten again.”

Angry, sullen, Sue Ellen resigned herself to J.R.’s demands.

Reconciliation, Jamie Ewing & Mandy Winger

However, as the weeks went by and crisis hit Southfork — Bobby’s shooting and subsequent blindness — the qualities she loved in J.R. resurfaced: his loyalty, his gentleness, his fierce determination to protect his family.

And, most important, his emotional need of Sue Ellen in times of trouble.

Once again they had a loving reconciliation — a respite for her weary heart — and once again it all went to pieces.

Jamie Ewing arrived at Southfork in the fall of 1984 and when J.R. immediately started bullying her, Sue Ellen stepped in to protect her.

Jamie was so young, so lost, so vulnerable. She had no family but this one, and Sue Ellen could not help but take care of her.

At first she was like a kid sister.

Sue Ellen taught her how to dress, how to carry herself, and how to laugh again.

In return, Jamie offered Sue Ellen her complete loyalty and love.

The relationship was a sorely needed breeze in the balmy emotional air of Southfork.

When Sue Ellen overheard Jamie confronting J.R. over his infidelity in 1985, she tried to believe J.R.’s lies, but ultimately she believed Jamie because she believed so much in Jamie.

Lord, it had been years, if ever, since Sue Ellen could believe in anyone, and in Jamie she found an integrity, an emotional purity and bond of mutual trust that made it possible.

When her relationship with J.R. exploded with its usual agonizing pain, Sue Ellen didn’t drink.

He had expected her to, and she herself thought she would too, but she didn’t — for Sue Ellen, through Jamie’s support, had begun to believe in herself.

In April, however, with J.R. flaunting an affair with Mandy Winger and a medical emergency with John Ross for which J.R. cruelly blamed Sue Ellen, she broke down and drank.

Sue Ellen Ewing is a woman possessing an enormous capacity for love.

By the same virtue, she is cursed with a dire need of it from others, something she has not readily received in the past.

Her love and need for J.R. is only surpassed by that for her son.

But whereas John Ross is so young, so dependent, his love so unconditional, J.R. is constantly fluctuating.

When J.R. is down, frightened, he depends on Sue Ellen’s love to survive.

But when he’s up, on top of the heap, he reverts to the “man’s man” persona Jock taught him too well, a persona that drops a sheet of glass between him and Sue Ellen.

When J.R. needs her, Sue Ellen flourishes; his love is the magic ingredient she has needed to love herself.

When he detaches from her, cheats on her, she despairs, feeling all is lost.

More than alcohol, J.R. may well be Sue Ellen’s most dangerous addiction.

Valentine Lingerie & Revenge

Sue Ellen was once again drinking heavily, enmeshed in her own guilt.

At the celebration party for Jenna’s release from jail and the Ewings’ latest victory over Cliff Barnes, she again hit the bottle imagining Dusty was back with her.

Pamela then informed Sue Ellen she was going to remarry Bobby.

Sue Ellen adored Pamela but could not find it in her to be happy for her ex-sister-in-law.

Instead Sue Ellen warned her that all Ewings are the same and she was crazy to want back in with the Ewings.

Pamela urged Sue Ellen to get help for her problem but by now she was wallowed in her own self-pity.

Sue Ellen had given up on any hope of a positive future.

Sue Ellen said, “Didn’t Bobby tell you, I’m Southfork’s resident alcoholic.”

Sue Ellen explained the only time she would stop drinking is when she finds something to replace her need for alcohol.

And that something she was about to find.

Sue Ellen was very aware of her husband’s latest passion with Mandy Winger.

She drank to numb the pain.

But it wasn’t until October 1986 that the two women in J.R.’s life would finally come face to face.

While eating and having her now habitual lunchtime vodka, Sue Ellen spotted Mandy leaving the restaurant.

Sue Ellen said, “It’s the Winger tramp. Don’t tell me J.R. let you out of bed long enough to have lunch.”

Mandy replied, “You don’t understand J.R. at all.”

Sue Ellen answered, “J.R. always uses that line.”

Mandy said, “He told me that you have a drinking problem and I can see that’s true.”

Sue Ellen replied, “J.R. will get bored of you soon.”

Mandy answered, “Tired of me? Just look at me, Sue Ellen. I’m years younger than you, prettier than you. He loves my body. You may be at Southfork, but it’s me he wants in bed and out.”

This latest humiliation was what Sue Ellen needed to remind her how much she despised J.R.

The thought of J.R. talking about her with his latest fling created a hunger for revenge against him.

Sue Ellen had found something finally to replace her need to drink — and that was her need to hate J.R.

Valentine’s Empire & Nicholas Pearce

The first part of her plan was a scare tactic to let J.R. know she meant business.

She hired a private detective to follow J.R. and Mandy, just close enough that he would be spotted and J.R. and Mandy would wonder what stunt Sue Ellen would pull next.

Sue Ellen had found a new strength in her revenge for J.R., and like a cat with the cream she was enjoying every moment and using every opportunity that came her way.

Sue Ellen was sent a mail catalogue from Valentine’s Lingerie, to J.R.’s disgust.

He said that no self-respecting woman would ever be caught dead posing for one of those magazines.

This gave Sue Ellen an idea.

She visited Valentine Lingerie later that day and found the owner there.

She said she would like to buy 90% of his business for $50,000 — way more than it was worth.

She said he could keep 10% of it as incentive to become her silent partner and follow her lead.

Sue Ellen’s plan was falling into place.

Knowing J.R.’s disgust for women who posed in such a way, she got her silent partner to hire Mandy Winger as the new Valentine Girl.

Making her into a star, pushing the image of Mandy in lingerie all across America.

This put a great strain on J.R.’s and Mandy’s relationship, both equally unaware of Sue Ellen’s involvement.

As Mandy became increasingly famous, Hollywood became interested in her for B-movies.

Sue Ellen was approached by Bruce Harvey, a Hollywood producer.

She told him she thought it might be good for Mandy to get out of Dallas for a while — perhaps a project in the Far East.

She even said she was willing to finance it — as long as it was carefully planned out and very “artistic.”

Mandy was offered the job and met with J.R. at the Texas Stadium private box and told him about her fantastic opportunity in Hollywood.

She said she’d give it all up if he’d leave Sue Ellen and marry her.

J.R. said that though he meant it once, it could never happen.

Mandy tearfully said goodbye.

Sue Ellen’s plan had worked.

Mandy signed her movie contract ensuring that she was heading off to the Orient.

She turned to find Sue Ellen watching the entire scene and found that she was the one behind Valentine’s Lingerie — and the movie deal.

Sue Ellen also said that she was actually doing Mandy a favor by getting her away from J.R.

Mandy said that it was a shame that J.R. didn’t appreciate his wife.

That night, Sue Ellen showed J.R. a taped talk show introducing female entrepreneurs — including her as the head of Valentine’s Lingerie.

J.R. complimented her on a very innovative solution to her problem and she responded that she had a great teacher.

Sue Ellen was finally finding her feet.

She had found some self-respect.

This was no longer about J.R. — it was about her own achievements.

Sue Ellen had built Valentine’s into a booming business and she loved the feeling of power and creativity.

Mandy Returns & A Final Attempt at Marriage

Following an incident with missionary B.D. Calhoun where the family’s life was in danger, J.R. and Sue Ellen began to get close again.

J.R. explained that he had found an admiration for this new Sue Ellen.

They both decided to give their marriage another try.

In May of 1987 the Ewings were in trouble.

Ewing Oil was about to be closed by the Justice Department, putting a great strain on the family, especially J.R.

But to make matters worse for Sue Ellen, Mandy had shown up again in Dallas, declaring she wanted to help Sue Ellen put Valentine’s back on the map.

But Sue Ellen was no longer a fool to be played with.

She was very aware of Mandy’s game — and that was to take J.R. back away from Sue Ellen.

In a final confrontation Sue Ellen tore up Mandy’s contract with Valentine’s declaring: “I’m cutting you off, you viper. Come back to help me? You came back to help yourself to my husband.”

Mandy then left Texas, but not before stating that one day she would return.

After J.R. lost Ewing Oil, Sue Ellen remained the faithful wife, supporting her husband with his new ventures.

But she was becoming increasingly frustrated with Valentine’s and wanted to expand.

J.R. put her in touch with his stock advisor.

Sue Ellen met with him and his assistant, Nicholas Pearce.

There was an instant attraction between Sue Ellen and Nicholas, but Sue Ellen was in this for business and was dedicated to J.R.

This obvious attraction continued between Sue Ellen and Nicholas, but Sue Ellen refrained from allowing it to go any further.

If she did she would be no better than J.R., and she remembered quite clearly what it was like to be cheated on.

But all this changed when Sue Ellen spotted J.R. with his latest flame, Kimberly Cryder.

“Sex and hotels... what a combination,” Sue Ellen declared when she spotted them together.

Sue Ellen now no longer had to keep her feelings for Nick at bay, and the two began a passionate affair.

WestStar, Nicholas Pearce & Shooting J.R.

In May of 1988 Sue Ellen began to realize that J.R. was attempting a takeover of WestStar and she wanted to stop him at all costs.

With Nick’s help she managed to put the pieces together and work out a way to stop J.R.

With Kimberly Cryder on side, Sue Ellen was about to play her trump card.

At the WestStar board meeting J.R. tried to take center stage as Chairman of the Board.

Kimberly came in and tried to rain on his parade by saying that she had inherited her father’s shares of the company, but J.R. was undeterred.

Until Sue Ellen walked in to stand with Kimberly.

No one amongst the major shareholders seemed to be behind J.R. after that.

Kimberly said that her group controlled 31% of the company.

J.R. countered that he controlled about 34%.

Nonplussed, Kimberly brought in one more friend who controlled a substantial piece of stock: Jeremy Wendell.

The board unanimously reinstated him as Chairman and CEO.

J.R. said, “I’ll never forget this, Sue Ellen.”

Sue Ellen replied, “I certainly hope not.”

Sue Ellen packed and left Southfork, reminding him that she won custody of John Ross.

J.R. picked up John Ross from a camping trip and told him that his mother had left them for another man.

John Ross affirmed his desire to remain at Southfork with his father.

When Sue Ellen arrived the next day to get him, J.R. told her that his son was safe from her — and that’s the way things would stay.

Sue Ellen visited a lawyer to remedy her situation.

He said he’d get the wheels rolling to have a judge instruct J.R. to produce John Ross within three days.

She and Nick celebrated their new life together that night, but she was still distracted about her son.

Meanwhile, J.R. enrolled John Ross in a secluded private school, claiming that the boy was under threat of being kidnapped.

The next morning, J.R. was served with papers ordering him to produce his son.

He immediately tore them up.

Sue Ellen told Nicholas that she planned to take John Ross away from the ranch, with the help of the Braddock police.

She found J.R. calmly waiting for her, and he tore up Sue Ellen’s court order, presenting one of his own, overturning hers for 30 days.

She rushed back to Nick’s place, who suggested that they use a PI to locate John Ross.

Sue Ellen worried that J.R. would poison John Ross’s mind against her in the meantime.

J.R. fell out with his family and moved into a hotel in Dallas.

In desperation to find John Ross, Sue Ellen and Nick confronted J.R. at his hotel suite.

J.R. took out a gun demanding they leave.

A fight broke out between Nick and J.R. as Sue Ellen watched helplessly.

During the fight J.R. accidentally pushed Nicholas over the balcony to his death.

In shock and confusion Sue Ellen picked up J.R.’s gun and shot him three times.

Years of anger came gushing out in one sudden moment.

Without thinking she wanted to end her pain — and to end it by killing J.R.

J.R. survived with flesh wounds.

Sue Ellen, full of anger, wanted J.R. charged for the murder of Nicholas Pearce.

J.R. wanted to charge Sue Ellen for attempted murder.

After some discussion both decided to drop the charges for the sake of John Ross.

Divorce, Don Lockwood & Leaving Dallas

Lucy, now back in town, sided with Sue Ellen and tracked down John Ross and handed him over to his delighted mother.

Sue Ellen was overwhelmed to have her son back and ever grateful to Lucy.

Sue Ellen moved into a new home with John Ross.

But she sensed his unhappiness as she informed him she would never live at Southfork again.

Sue Ellen decided to do what was best for her son and allowed him to stay at Southfork with the Ewings.

Her only condition was that J.R. sign a contract that allowed her full custody.

J.R. agreed.

Leaving her son was the most painful decision Sue Ellen ever had to make.

After all these years of fighting over her son, to keep her son she was handing him back to the man she hated more than anything.

But she loved John Ross dearly, and it was his happiness that counted.

Over this time Sue Ellen became friendly with Jeremy Wendell due to their mutual hate of J.R.

December 16th, 1988, was a historic day for Sue Ellen.

With J.R. out of town, her divorce from him was finalized.

The most heated and twisted relationship of all time was finally over, giving Sue Ellen a new sense of freedom.

Jeremy Wendell visited Sue Ellen’s office and was in a mood to celebrate.

He even offered her a diamond bracelet and said he had plans to marry her one day.

Sue Ellen let Jeremy know her feelings quite clearly:

“I would rather sleep with J.R. than sleep with you, and I’d rather sleep with a carnival geek than sleep with J.R.”

Bruce Harvey returned to Dallas with the profits from the movies.

Sue Ellen attended the Oil Barons Ball with Harvey as her escort where she met J.R.’s new wife, Cally, for the first time.

Cally informed Sue Ellen that she didn’t seem to be the drunk J.R. described her as.

In a fit of rage Sue Ellen confronted J.R., giving him a right hook and knocking him to the floor for all to see.

Bruce wanted Sue Ellen to buy the Hollywood film studio, but she said she didn’t want to move to Los Angeles to run it.

She decided to purchase a smaller Dallas studio instead.

Sue Ellen fell upon a plan to make a movie about her life with J.R. based on diaries she had kept throughout the years.

She met Don Lockwood, a director from London who would make the movie.

Over the next few months Sue Ellen and Don grew closer and closer.

The movie brought them together as Don began to understand the horrid life she had led with J.R.

Don was sensitive and kind — everything J.R. wasn’t.

It was only natural she would fall in love with this man and him likewise with her.

With the movie complete Don asked Sue Ellen to move to England with him.

At first she wasn’t sure, but then she decided that it might be the best thing for her.

Her main concern was leaving behind John Ross.

After a painstaking decision Sue Ellen decided to make the move and leave Dallas behind her.

On May 19th, 1989, Sue Ellen gave her final blow to J.R., her final revenge after all these years of misery.

She took J.R. to a movie theatre and showed him the film of their life together.

J.R. sat in shock as he watched his life go by before his very eyes.

At the end of the movie J.R. told her to burn it.

She informed him she would keep it in a vault, and if he ever crossed her — or if she just felt like it — just for laughs she would show the world.

With that, Sue Ellen left with Don for England.

In February of 1991 Sue Ellen married Don in a small village in England.

It was a quiet ceremony with a few family and friends attending.

Lucy Ewing attended, passing through on her travels.

Sue Ellen had never been happier, and she was for the next five years.

But over a period of time Sue Ellen felt a need to be back in the USA.

She loved England but it was never home, and Don did not care much for Texas.

Sue Ellen did have her son with her, but she was growing increasingly bored with little to do.

The couple divorced.

Later Life and Public Career (2012–2014)

In her later years, Sue Ellen Ewing emerged as a formidable and highly visible public figure in Texas. After decades of emotional turmoil, addiction, and scandal, she reinvented herself as a respected fundraiser and political power broker, forging alliances with major donors and political leaders. Her reputation as a survivor — and as a woman who had overcome alcoholism and personal tragedy — helped her gain widespread public sympathy and admiration. Building on that momentum, Sue Ellen launched a campaign for Governor of Texas, positioning herself as a champion for social reform, education, and mental health awareness.

The campaign, however, quickly became mired in controversy. Sue Ellen’s past came back to haunt her when it was revealed that she had secretly bribed a medical examiner years earlier to rule a suspicious death a suicide — a decision she had made to protect her son, John Ross. When the truth surfaced, political donors withdrew their support, her opponents seized on the scandal, and her credibility collapsed almost overnight. Though she fought fiercely to salvage her campaign, Sue Ellen ultimately lost the election, suffering one of the most public and humiliating defeats of her life.

Emotionally devastated and facing possible criminal charges, Sue Ellen teetered on the edge of relapse. The familiar pull of alcohol returned, echoing the darkest chapters of her past. At her lowest point, however, both J.R. and John Ross unexpectedly came to her side, offering her the emotional support she had so often been denied in earlier years. Their presence steadied her, and for the first time in decades, Sue Ellen allowed herself to believe that reconciliation with both her ex-husband and her son might still be possible.

“For all the men I ever loved, for all the mistakes I ever made… J.R. Ewing was the love of my life. And I never really stopped loving him.”

When Sue Ellen reunited with J.R., their long-suppressed feelings resurfaced almost immediately. There were moments when it seemed as though they might finally build the life together that had eluded them for so many years. Yet old mistrust lingered, and Sue Ellen found it difficult to fully believe in J.R.’s promises of change. Complicating matters further was the re-emergence of Cliff Barnes into Ewing affairs and John Ross’s increasingly ruthless behavior in business — traits disturbingly reminiscent of his father at his worst.

Determined to protect her son from destroying himself, Sue Ellen became deeply involved in John Ross’s corporate ambitions. She aided his effort to seize control of Ewing Energies and tried to temper his darker instincts, but her interference only worsened their already strained relationship. Mother and son clashed bitterly, each accusing the other of betrayal and manipulation. Sue Ellen was tormented by the fear that she had failed as a mother — that despite all her sacrifices, John Ross had inherited the most destructive parts of the Ewing legacy.

Tragedy struck when J.R. was found murdered under mysterious circumstances. At his funeral, Sue Ellen was shattered. In a private letter J.R. had written before his death, he confessed that he had always loved her and had planned to reunite with her once his final affairs were in order. Reading his words, Sue Ellen broke down publicly and admitted that had J.R. lived, she would have taken him back. The moment forced her to confront the full weight of their tortured history — all the love, cruelty, betrayal, and longing that had defined their lives.

“We destroyed each other, J.R. But God help me… I loved you more than anyone I ever loved in my life.”

In the aftermath of J.R.’s death, Sue Ellen briefly relapsed into drinking, overwhelmed by grief and unresolved guilt. Her relationship with John Ross deteriorated further as he spiraled into recklessness, mirroring his father’s obsession with power and control. Sue Ellen tried desperately to save him from himself, but her warnings went unheeded. When John Ross’s actions nearly resulted in his imprisonment, Sue Ellen was forced to accept that her son’s fate might ultimately be beyond her control.

Over time, Sue Ellen began to learn the truth about J.R.’s secret illness and the financial and legal arrangements he had made before his death. Though furious that he had kept these things from her, she eventually came to understand that even in his final days, J.R. had been trying — in his own deeply flawed way — to protect his family. This realization brought Sue Ellen a measure of peace and closure she had never known before.

By the end of the series, Sue Ellen stood as one of the last great survivors of the Ewing dynasty. Her political career lay in ruins, her marriage to J.R. had ended in tragedy, and her relationship with John Ross remained painfully fractured. Yet she was no longer the fragile, self-loathing woman she had once been. Though scarred by a lifetime of heartbreak, addiction, and betrayal, Sue Ellen Ewing endured — wiser, stronger, and finally free from the emotional prison that had defined her youth.

“I lost my husband. I nearly lost my son. I lost my life more than once. But I’m still here — and I’m not finished yet.”