Cassie Newman - Character Development

Character Development

When she debuted, Cassie was 8 years old, having been born on January 8, 1991. She was adopted by Alice Johnson (Tamara Clatterbuck) as an infant. However, in 1994, Alice disappeared and left her in the care of her elderly mother Millie. Sharon's best friend Grace Turner (Jennifer Gareis) later tracked down Cassie and took her for herself. A writer from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said that Grace wanted Cassie as a "pet" despite knowing Sharon was her biological mother. As she grew up, she went from a sweet child to a "rebellious" teen who began to lie to her parents. She also wanted to hang out with older kids at school, like Daniel Romalotti (Michael Graziadei) and Lily Winters (Christel Khalil ). She was grounded because of her "rebellious streak". Cassie was described as a "good girl" who wanted to "fit in" but began cutting classes, giving her parents attitude and "a whole host of other angsty teenage pleasantries."

Cassie died following a car crash on May 24, 2005. Grimes said that she has missed the show since leaving, and was shocked to find out that Cassie was killed off. She stated: "If it's meant to happen, it's meant to happen. Everything happens for a reason, I think." Of Cassie's last scene, she said it was "ridiculously hard If you watch my death scene, where Sharon is crying over me - I'm supposed to be dead - but I'm crying." If Cassie wasn't killed off, Grimes wanted to her to have a love interest, stating: "I always wanted a love interest. If I'd stayed on the show, I had hoped that was where it would go eventually. Liberty Kontranowski of About.com labeled Cassie's death as one of the "saddest and hardest-hitting storylines" of daytime. After her death, her parents began 'Cassie's Foundation', a movement "to prevent teenage drinking and driving."