| Iva Snyder | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| As the World Turns | |||||||
| Portrayed by | Lisa Brown | ||||||
| Created by | Douglas Marland | ||||||
| Duration | 1985-2003 | ||||||
| First appearance | August 1985 | ||||||
| Last appearance | December 22,2003 | ||||||
| Profile | |||||||
| Family | Snyder | ||||||
| Gender | Female | ||||||
| Date of birth | 1955 | ||||||
| Occupation |
Former AIDS contribution director at Memorial Former assistant at Andropolous Construction Former porn star working for Tad Channing | ||||||
| Residence | Washington,DC | ||||||
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Iva Benedict(nee' Snyder) was a character on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns. She was portrayed by actress Lisa Brown best known for her work as Nola Reardon on Guiding Light. She first appeared on the show sometime in August of 1985 until early January 1994. She made appearances in 1998, 2000, 2001, and 2003.
Conception[]
Casting[]
In 1985, execs at As the World Turns decided to hire writer Douglas Marland to headwrite the show. No stranger to daytime, he was previously a headwriter for General Hospital and Guiding Light. He had a way to bring realness to his stories and characters, and was also successful in creating new families into the show and tie them into existing characters and families, one prime example is the Quatermaine family, who is still an core family on General Hospital to this day. During his duties as headwriter on Guiding Light, Marland created the Reardon family, a very large religious family who had ties to existing characters on the soap. During this time, actress Lisa Brown had a role on the soap as Nola Reardon, a member of the family. He left Guiding Light in late 84 and soon after started on As the World Turns. One of his first storylines were that of introducing the Snyder family, a large religious family of farmers. He tied the family into the characters Lucinda Walsh and her daughter Lily Walsh. He hired Lisa to take on the role of eldest daughter Iva. The storyline of Iva's sordid past, Holden and Lily's romance, and subsequent reveal of Lily being Iva's biological daughter became a huge hit, and the character of Iva was popular among fans for many years.
Characterization[]
Backstory[]
Iva Snyder grew up in Luther's Corners, Illinois as the daughter of Harvey and Emma Snyder. She had a older brother Seth and several younger siblings; Ellie, Caleb, Holden, and Meg. She grew up in a loving and caring family. When she was thirteen, she went to Kansas, to stay with her Uncle Henry and Aunt Elizabeth. While staying there, she was treated harshly by her much older cousin Josh Snyder, and it gradually became worse, and tragically ended with Josh brutally raping her. Ashamed, Iva decides to run away instead of telling her family the truth. She soon learned she was pregnant. After going to city to city for months, she decides to check herself in at a orphanage just outside of Atlantic City. There she made plans to give her baby up for adoption and met with baby broker Clifford Breyer. Not long after, Iva went through a very difficult labor due to her young age and gave birth to daughter, who she gave to Clifford. After recuperating, Iva decides to move to California, where she took odd jobs to make ends meet. She soon became a pornstar and worked for Tad Channing who became her lover. However, after many years, Iva grew tired of that life and decide to go home to face her family for the first time in 17 years, and find out about the daughter she gave up for adoption.
Storylines[]
1985-1989[]
Iva returned to her family farm. Her return was a shock to everyone as they haven't laid eyes on her in seventeen years. Even though she was glad to be back on the farm, being there brought back the painful memories of her rape, something her family still didn't know. She learned her youngest brother Holden was the new stableboy for the wealthy Lucinda Walsh who lived in nearby Oakdale, she also learned he was smitten with her daughter Lily Walsh whom Iva thought was a nice yet lonely girl. Lily would stop by the farm from time to time and would confide in Iva about how controlling her Lucinda was. She gave Lily reassurance that her mother loved her, and if things didn't work out, she will have a place to stay at the Snyder farm.
Still haven't told her family her dark secret, Iva began to search for the daughter she gave up for adoption. She tracked Clifford Breyer in Chicago, where he told her that he gave the child to a Mr. and Mrs. Martin Guest. He also told her that Martin committed suicide nine years later and a few years after that, his widow and the child left town for parts unknown. Defeated Iva came back home with thoughts of never finding her daughter. A while later, the whole town would be rocked with the Marie Kovacs murder and subsequent trial. Iva learned that Lucinda was one of the prime suspects in the trial, as Marie was blackmailing Lucinda about Lily's adoption. She also learned that Marie was the one calling Lucinda's house asking for a Mrs. Martin Guest. This news shocked Iva and she came to an realization, Lily was her long-lost daughter. Knowing Lily and Holden had deep feelings for one another, Iva confessed to her mother the horrible truth. However, Emma reassured her by telling her that Lily and Holden was not biologically related, both Iva and Josh were adopted into the Snyder Family. Even though that eased her mind, Iva was still troubled by the crumbling relationship of Lily and Lucinda. Fed up with what was going on, Iva decides to pay Lucinda a visit and told her that she was Lily's birth mother, and that if she didn't stop trying to control her. she was gonna tell Lily the truth. They battled for weeks but came to standstill when they realized that Lily couldn't handle the truth. They decide not to tell her.
However, that truce would be short lived when Josh comes back to town. After learning from his mother that Iva had return home, he decides to make amends with all the things he's done. Iva was not to please to see him and the whole Snyder clan tried to get him desperately to leave town. He also learned that Iva gave birth to his child, he was more determined to stay to find out what happen to their daughter. Iva began to panic when she learn Josh was hired as the Walsh's new stableboy, knowing he was now in near access to Lily, she did all she could to protect her from Josh. One night she found Josh in the stables calming an hysterical Lily down who was upset about her brother-in-law Craig's disappearance. Mistaken that he was attacking him, she grab a pitchfork and blast him for hurting his daughter, Lily!!! Shocked and angry, Lily blasts Iva and ran away. Iva tearfully went to Lucinda and told her the whole truth. Eventually Lily would return home and she got to know her real parents as well as reconcile with Lucinda. Iva eventually forgave Josh and decided to move on with her life.
With her past behind her, Iva began a promising new relationship with businessman Kirk Anderson. Unfortunately the relationship became strained with Iva's sexual problems, and also her desire to find her biological family, something Kirk didn't approved. Soon Iva would learn the truth about Kirk when she finally located the Carpenters-who gave Iva away because they was too poor(they was now rich), she found out that one of her Carpenter cousins, Lenore, was Kirk's ex-wife and the mother of his two children, who he abandoned with no means of support. Furious Iva broke it off with him, but sometime later took him back. Not too long after that, Iva found out Kirk was seeing her sister Ellie behind her back, though hurt at first, she gave them her blessing.
1990-1998[]
After ending it with Kirk, Iva decided she wanted to adopt a baby. Some time later Julie Wendell offered Iva to adopt her baby boy, which thrilled Iva. Though initially at first she didn't know who the father was, but eventually she would learn that the father was Holden, who by now was married to Lily. Not wanting to jeapoardize thier marriage, Iva kept the the truth from Holden and she adopted the child and named him Aaron. However, Holden learned the truth anyway and confronted Julie in New York, where a short time later he was mugged and lost his memory. Determined not to hurt Lily, Lucinda decided not to tell Lily Holden's whereabouts and blackmailed Julie to keep quiet. After awhile, Julie became fed up with Lucinda and decided to tell Lily the whole truth, even the truth about baby Aaron being Holden's son. Lily blasts both of her mothers for keeping crucial secrets from her for months and soon left town not wanting to speak to both of them.
Awhile after that, Iva had a romance with John Dixon which resulted in her getting pregnant. Also at the same time, an amnesiac Holden returned to town. He learned all over again that Aaron was his son and decides to take him from Iva. She begged and pleas with him to let her keep him, that he was in a safe and loving home. However, Holden with no memories of Iva or their family ties didn't listen and soon won custody of Aaron. Soon Iva gave birth to her son Matthew John, who was called M.J. for short. After M.J.'s birth, Iva realized she wasn't in love with John and embarked on a relationship with attorney Jason Benedict. After marrying, the couple moved to Washington, DC, where Jason headed the goverment's Crime Comission. In June of 1994, Jason, Iva, and MJ, briefly returned to town to attend Caleb's wedding to Julie and returned in 1998 to attend Holden and Lily's wedding.
2000-2003[]
Iva's quiet family life would be rocked when she got a phone call from Lucinda telling her to come to Oakdale for an family emergency. Once she got there, Iva was shocked to learned that a woman named Rose D'Angelo was in town masquerading as Lily. She also learned how Lily and Rose met, Lily was searching Iva's family line to find out about a prized diamond which a con man named Simon Frazier wanted. Iva and Lucinda begin to dig into Rose's past and learned that the diamond Rose owned was orignally owned by Caroline Carpenter, Iva's biological mother. Knowing there was a connection between Lily and Rose, the duo head to New Jersey to the orphanage where Iva gave birth to Lily. There Iva learned she didn't just gave birth to one but two babies!!! An out of it Iva had given birth to a sickly Rose, just a few minutes before having Lily. The nuns kept Rose as a secret because they didn't think Rose would make it, plus Clifford Breyer and Martin Guest didn't want the sickly child, taking Lily instead. One nun nursed Rose to health for eight months, then finally she was adopted by the D'Angelos. Armed with this information, Iva and Lucinda raced back to Oakdale to stop Lily for sending Rose to jail by telling the truth. Although beyond shocked an angry and wanted nothing to do with Rose, Lily forgave Rose and the two formed a sisterly bond. Iva stayed in town awhile longer to get to know Rose, and was present at Holden and Luke's memorial before going back to DC.
Sadly, Iva's newfound daughter Rose was murdered a few years later, and a very sad Iva attended her funeral, and hasn't been seen since. However, she has been mentioned from time to time by her family. Lily visit her in 2008 for an extended period of time, and when Meg became mentally unstable, Emma sends her to an institution in DC, and Emma followed her, presumely staying with Iva