Cramer family

First generation

Second generation

Third generation

Fourth generation

Fifth generation

Enter Dorian and Melinda

Dr. Dorian Cramer arrives in Llanview on April 30, 1973 with unstable younger sister Melinda Cramer. Both of their parents are assumed dead in a plane crash en route to visit an injured Melinda, whose promising career as a pianist was ended by a fall that had paralyzed her arm (it is later revealed their mother survived). Having apparently lost a third sister to pneumonia, Dorian and Melinda are each other's only family.

Dorian treats Eileen Riley Siegel for her addiction to painkillers, and soon became romantically involved with Dr. Mark Toland, the husband of Eileen's daughter Julie Siegel Toland. A furious Melinda, who had also developed a crush on Mark, became further unhinged. When Melinda's plan to stab Dorian and Mark in bed fails in 1974, Dorian has her sister institutionalized.

Dorian and Mark are suspended from Llanview Hospital in 1974 for her involvement in the death of patient Rachel Wilson, and Dorian blames hospital board member Victoria "Viki" Lord Riley (who had actually voted in Dorian's favor) for the decision. She and Viki spar further when Dorian becomes the private physician to Viki's ailing father, Victor Lord, but their rivalry is cemented when Victor announces his elopment to Dorian in May 1975. Victor's long-lost son Tony Harris comes to town and Dorian, hoping to maintain her hold on Victor's fortune, soon manipulates events to make father and son bitter enemies. After Victor's mysterious death in 1976, the shadow of implicating suspicion surrounds Dorian for decades.

Blair's revenge

In 1991, former foster child Blair Daimler arrives in Llanview with a secret — she is the daughter of Dorian's previously unmentioned older sister Agatha "Addie" Cramer, who was not dead as previously assumed. Blair had Addie, mentally ill and institutionalized for years, hidden in her loft, and blamed her Aunt Dorian for her mother's illness. Seeking revenge, Blair tries to ruin Dorian by getting her aunt's signature on a document confessing to the murder of Victor Lord in 1976.

Blair seeks to marry Asa Buchanan to gain the financial security and the power she desired to care for her mother and destroy Dorian. As it was revealed, Dorian was told Addie had died by their parents, who actually institutionalized Addie. Blair marries Asa in spite of being in love with Max Holden; by the time her marriage fell apart to Asa had thrown her out of Buchanan mansion and Max moved on to date and marry Luna Moody. In 1994, Blair becomes romantically involved with Todd Manning.

Kelly and Paul

In 1995, Melinda's rebellious daughter Kelly Cramer arrives in Llanview, scarred by her childhood with her unstable mother and raised in various European boarding schools arranged by her aunt Dorian. Kelly comes to live with her cousin Cassie and Cassie's husband Andrew, and develops an infatuation with Dorian's husband David Vickers. Over time, Kelly and her family become close. Later, Kelly falls for both Joey and Kevin Buchanan.

In 1997, Melinda is finally recovering from her breakdown, and remembering her and Dorian's traumatic past at the Cramer family hometown of Canton, Ohio. Dorian, desperate not to let the dark secrets of their past resurface, begins switching Melinda's antipsychotic medication, and Melinda once again sinks into dementia.

In 2003, it is revealed that Melinda had told Dorian upon a recent hospital visit that she had given birth to a son as well as a daughter during her years in Europe, and that the boy had been given away. This child turns out to be Paul Cramer. Melinda is seen again in 2004 during the "baby switch" storyline, in which Kelly confesses her and Paul's sins to her delusional mother. A disoriented Melinda — lost in her own world — mistakes Kelly's son Ace for her own son Paul. A devious Paul is murdered in October 2004; One Life to Live was met with criticism when the killer was later revealed to be married district attorney Daniel Colson, who had murdered Paul to cover up the fact that Daniel is secretly gay. On March 1, 2010, the assembled family receives the news that Melinda has died of a heart attack.