Pauline Rysdale

Pauline Tyrell Harris Rysdale, known more familiarly as "Aunt Pauline", was a character in the now-defunct American Soap Opera, "The Secret Storm". She was played by actress Haila Stoddard.

Jilted sister

Pauline was the daughter of Judge J.T. and Grace Tyrell, who owned Tyrell's Department Store in the fictional community of Woodbridge, New York. The Tyrell family was one of the oldest and richest families in town. She and Peter Ames were engaged to be married, but was shocked to discover that he eloped with her younger sister, Ellen Ames. One day later, Ellen was in a car accident and was killed. She helped her grieving brother in-law, and his three children, but she had some ulterior motives. She was still in love with Peter and was angling to still marry him.

Pauline wound up eventually marrying a man named Arthur Rysdale. She was interested in nearly destroying any relationship that Peter would have. He was intent on marrying Jane Edwards, the recently hired housekeeper, but Pauline found Jane's presumably dead husband, Bruce, and the two reconciled. With her own marriage to Arthur Rysdale, she wasn't always causing any more trouble. Arthur's son, Kip, eventually married, then divorced Pauline's niece, Amy Ames.

During the battle with Jane, Pauline had help from her oldest niece, Susan Ames Dunbar. She was as against her father remarrying as Aunt Pauline was. Although by the seventies, Aunt Pauline had mellowed a great deal and had not been as malevolent as she had been in the fifties, she had been relegated to the background, but it was presumed that she was still living in Woodbridge.