How and when the creature known as Laura came into existence is a mystery. But the immortal Phoenix was a servant of the Egyptian sun god, Ra. Her life-force contained in a sacred urn, Laura's entire reason for being was to have children, taking them up in flames with her as she was reborn. The theory was that they would become immortal like her, and perhaps she actually believed that. (One of her sons was contacted by seance, however, leading to the conclusion that it was not true.) According to legend, the phoenix was supposed to appear every 100 years, but Laura actually showed up more often than that. (Either the legend was wrong, or Ra gave her special privledges for her successes.)
Her history prior to the 1700's is unknown, but in the mid-eighteenth century Laura came to Collinsport. Taking the name Laura Murdoch, she married a man named Stockbridge. Possibly she succeeded in her task, but either way, she died by fire in 1767. Her remains were buried in a special crypt at Eagle Hill Cemetery for members of the Stockbridge family who died by violence. But they wouldn't be there for long.
For Laura reincarnated shortly after, returning to Collinsport. Probably aware that some of the older members of the community might remember Laura Murdoch, she became Laura Stockbridge (possibly posing as her own daughter. It would certainly explain the resemblance.) Arriving in a bright orange riding habit, she entranced many men, but married the young Jeremiah Collins. (Barnabas' recollection that he was ten when they married was obviously the result of a faulty memory, since he and Jeremiah were practically the same age.) This would be the beginning of her long association with the Collins family, and would be her downfall for centuries afterward. No children were produced in this marriage, and Laura was forced to go up in flames alone.
It was the 1800's before Laura was heard from again in Collinsport, this time as Laura Murdoch Radcliffe. She had a son named David, and she showered him with love and affection. When her time came in 1867, Laura held her son close as she caused the curtains to catch fire. Attempts were made to rescue mother and child, but they were refused. Both perished in the blaze, and Laura had her first documented success.
But only David Radcliffe remained dead, for Laura soon reincarnated again. Perhaps her success gave her renewed confidence, for she once again married a Collins, and this time had two children, Jamison and Nora. Her husband, the stuffy Edward, was tiresome, however, and Laura became restless. His younger brother Quentin was much more exciting, so when he left in 1896, she followed him. The two went to Egypt together, where Laura was sacrificed to Ra upon a flaming pyre as Quentin watched, horrified.
She had some unfinished business, however, namely her children. So it was that the following year Laura arrived back at Collinwood. Needless to say, Edward was not happy to see her, though Jamison and Nora were thrilled. Unfortunately, Quentin had also returned recently, and could hardly forget her fiery death just months before. Knowing he would be an obstacle to her plans, she tried to kill him with her powers, and only the intervention of the witch Angelique saved his life.
Laura was forced to forget about Quentin for a while, though; a threat to her children was more important. Edward had sent them away to Worthington Hall, and Laura learned from Rachel Drummond that the Trasks who ran the school were cruel and abusive. She tried to take her offspring away from the school, but was balked by Gregory Trask. In revenge, Laura caused Worthington Hall to burn to the ground. (This would be the one good deed of Laura's long existence.)
But now she was in danger herself. Quentin had discovered the secret of her life - the sacred urn. When he extinguished the flame inside, Laura collapsed. Desperate to survive, she used the warmth of servant Dirk Wilkins to stay alive until Ra could send her a scarab to replace her life. Dirk became her devoted slave, and she needed all the help she could get. For the time-travelling Barnabas Collins was the nephew of her past husband Jeremiah, and he remembered her well. He even caused her disappear when he summoned the spirit of Laura Stockbridge Collins with a ritual from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. When he and Quentin joined forces to destroy her, she knew she had to take care of them both. Sending the insane Jenny after Quentin, Laura and Dirk discovered Barnabas' secret - he was a vampire. Figuring his exposure would get rid of him, Laura sent a letter to Judith at Collinwood, a major mistake as it turned out. Not only was the letter intercepted by Barnabas, but she made her most powerful enemy yet - Angelique. Asking Ra's help, she thought she had destroyed the witch with fire, unaware that Angelique had diverted her with a duplicate, a doppelganger. So when the phoenix tried to bring her children into the flames, Angelique's magic caused Laura to appear her true age, scaring the children away from her. Laura went to Ra alone.
One would think that Ra would have been angry with his servant for her constant failures, but in the 1950's she was back in Collinsport. This time Laura Murdoch had two men competing for her attention - the poor but handsome Burke Devlin, and the rich, dashing Roger Collins. (One wonders if she realized he was her own grandson.) She dated both, trying to decide between them. But one night, both Roger and Burke were drunk, and Roger struck and killed a man with Burke's car. Deciding on Roger's money over Burke's looks, she accepted Roger's proposal and testified that Burke was driving. The day after Burke's manslaughter conviction, they were married. But Roger's older sister Elizabeth disapproved of Laura, and she and Roger moved to Augusta.
Her marriage to Roger started badly and got worse. The one joy in her life was her son David. (Though whether David was Roger or Burke's son, possibly even she didn't know.) But her unhappy marriage made her start drinking. Finally, she had a breakdown and was committed to a sanitarium. When she was released, she moved to Phoenix. (Something about the name must have attracted her.) But her time was near, and she burned in her apartment. Though the remains were positively identified as those of Laura Murdoch Collins, her arrival at Collinwood asking for a divorce from Roger and custody of David proved to everyone that it must have been a mistake. Roger would have been very happy to give her "the little monster", but David himself was hesitant. He even appeared frightened of her at first. But Laura moved into the caretaker's cottage, hoping to win David over. There was one person Laura didn't have to win over, and that was Burke Devlin, who had become close friends with David. Wanting her help to clear him of the manslaughter charge (and still having feelings for her), Burke agreed to plead her case with David.
While Laura did a fairly good job at first of getting help from the family, she had trouble from a supernatural inhabitant of Collinwood, the ghost of Josette Collins. (She was Jeremiah's second wife. Maybe she learned about Laura from him.) Josette compelled artist Sam Evans to paint a portrait of Laura surrounded by flames in an attempt to warn them of the danger. When Laura used her powers to burn Sam's hands, Josette even finished the portrait herself, adding David's image to the flames. Josette would continue to give Laura problems until the end.
Laura's worst mistake came when she accidentally let Elizabeth she her getting intimate with Burke. Intent on throwing Laura out and keeping David at Collinwood, Liz found herself one of the phoenix's victims, falling into a deep coma. Now everyone started being suspicious of her, and a new danger arrived in the form of parapsychologist Peter Guthrie, called in to discover what happened to Elizabeth. Though Laura was making headway with David, she was not able to keep Dr. Guthrie from putting together all the pieces. Even as she kept throwing up roadblocks to his investigation and denying his accusations, Guthrie figured out she was a phoenix, turning even Roger and Burke against her. She tried to put him into the same coma she had used on Liz (twice), but failed. She finally had to resort to the ultimate solution. Sending a blinding light, she caused the doctor to drive his car into a tree where it burst into flames. Dr. Peter Guthrie was no more.
Laura's time of reincarnation was near. She secretly told David to sneak out to meet her, hoping he would choose to join her as she went up in flames. But Josette alerted Victoria Winters to David's peril, and she discovered Laura at the old fishing shack surrounded by fire. Laura pleaded with David to join her, but Vicki convinced David not to. Laura Murdoch burned alone, exclaiming, "The phoenix is reborn!"
