Was very sad to read that actress Shell Kepler, best known for playing the gossip-loving nurse Amy Vining on "General Hospital," died on Friday of renal failure at a hospital near her home in Portland, Ore. She was 49. Just over the weekend I was talking about my early '80s love affair with "General Hospital" when a co-worker mentioned having run into Finola Hughes at a Fashion Week event here in New York. It was the summer of '79 and my mom hadn't gone back to work yet, so she was home hooked on "her stories" on ABC. My brother and I quickly got into them too, intrigued by the exploits of Monica and Alan Quartermaine (and evil sister Tracy), Bobbie Spencer, Robert and Holly Scorpio, Luke and Laura -- and dreamy Scotty Baldwin and Joe Kelly. You could always count on Amy Vining to be at the reception area with all the latest dish on all of the hospital employees' indecent affairs. By the time I started high school Mom was working again and we gradually lost interest. (Like Dr. Noah Drake, we had moved on.) Then in '83 I read in a music magazine that Nurse Vining -- aka Shell Kepler -- had released an EP as Shell and the Crush (so New Wave!). I never got around to buying it, but when I heard about Shell's passing I quickly turned to the Internet and found a clip set to her song "When You Look My Way," courtesy of YouTube DJ 4gottenTraxxx. Thanks for the memories, Shell!
Video tribute
From her Shell and the Crush days
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