Annie Sugden - Storylines

Storylines

Born Annie Pearson in Beckindale on 5 July 1920, she was the only child of young labourer Sam Pearson and his wife Grace. Annie married local farmer Jacob Sugden in 1945. He moved her into Emmerdale Farm and they had 3 children Jack born in 1947, Peggy in 1948 and Joe in 1949. Annie's mum died in 1968 the year her daughter Peggy married Matt Skilbeck.

The audience was introduced to farmer's wife Annie Sugden in the soap's first episode in 1972. It was a time of sadness for the Sugden family, as Annie was burying her recently deceased husband, Jacob, who had died after spending much of his later years in the pub, The Woolpack, drinking away the family's farming profits. Early central storylines in the serial followed Annie as she struggled to come to terms with the death of her husband, support her family, and run Emmerdale Farm, set in the Yorkshire Dales in the fictional village of Beckindale.

Matriarchal Annie aimed to rebuild the ailing farm by reuniting her two feuding sons, Jack and Joe. She sold part of Emmerdale Farm to village outsider, Henry Wilks, who had made his fortune in the wool industry and brought his business acumen to Beckindale. Early in the series, Woolpack landlord Amos Brearly decided a woman’s touch was needed in his pub and proposed to Annie; she turned him down.

Tragedy followed the Sugdens. In 1973, Peggy died of a brain hemorrhage a few months after giving birth to twins and three years later, Peggy's twins were killed on a level crossing, leaving Annie to comfort their father Matt. Annie's father Sam died in 1984, and when Jack's wife Pat died in 1986, Annie was forced to help Jack raise his young son Robert.

In early 1993, Emmerdale Farm began collapsing due to subsidence. Although the family moved into Hawthorn Cottage, Annie remained unhappy until it was renamed Emmerdale Farm. In December that year, Annie and her second husband, Leonard Kempinski, whom she had married in October, planned to go on holiday to Spain. The night they were supposed to fly out was the night of a plane crash. As Joe was driving them to the airport, a wing of a plane collided with the car. Joe escaped with a broken leg; however, Annie was in a coma for several months. The cries of her new baby granddaughter Victoria finally woke Annie from her coma but she was devastated to discover Leonard had died. Widowed again, Annie was left to mourn a second husband.

At Jack's wedding to Sarah Connolly in 1994, Amos announced that the residents of Beckindale had decided to rename the village Emmerdale, in honour of Annie. He remarked that people had voted for the name Emmerdale as they held Annie in such high regard. After moving to Spain in 1994, Annie returned to Emmerdale in 1995 to bury her son Joe, who had died in a car accident. 23 years after his first proposal, Amos Brearly proposed to Annie again; this time she accepted. Annie and Amos returned to Spain where they married on 5 November 1995, though Annie returned briefly on 7 November 1996 to ask Jack to sell Emmerdale Farm; he refused.

After a 13 year absence, Annie returned to the village on 9 February 2009 for Jack's funeral. Jack had been staying with her in Spain and had suffered a fatal heart attack; she accompanied his body to Emmerdale. She grieved with Jack's family and returned to Spain after his funeral.