When the series began, Haviland's richest citizen, widowed Kate Austen (Kathleen Maguire) wrote a novel, in the same manner as Main Street, which showed Haviland's citizens in a less than perfect light. After the novel was stopped by her publisher, she and her son, Chris (Richard Thomas), left Haviland, never to return. Her former mother-in-law, Louise Austen (Josephine Nichols) remained in town to become a friend to Jason Farrell (Walter Coy), who had marital troubles with his wife, Leslie (Rita Lloyd); Kate's place as town gossip was taken by Miriam Bentley (Lesley Woods).