Mary Stuart (born Mary Houchins; July 4, 1926 – February 28, 2002) was an American actress, guitarist, singer, and songwriter. A former silver screen starlet, she was perhaps best known for her starring role as Joanne on the CBS/NBC soap opera Search for Tomorrow, which she played for 35 years without interruption (1951–86). After her divorce from her first husband, with whom she raised two children, she began a side career as a guitarist and a singer-songwriter, first singing on Search for Tomorrow and then releasing her own album in 1973. At the time of her death, she had played the role of Meta Bauer on the CBS soap opera Guiding Light for six years. For her work in daytime drama, she was given the Lifetime Achievement Daytime Emmy Award. Early years Stuart was born in Miami, Florida, to Guy M. and Mary (née Stuart) Houchins. She grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she graduated from Tulsa Central High School and attended the University of Tulsa before embarking on her professional career. She left home at age 17 for New York City, where her career started, and where she returned after finding Hollywood too stressful. Her eventual stage name was her mother's maiden name. Career Film Stuart appeared with such stars as Errol Flynn (in Adventures of Don Juan), Clark Gable (in The Hucksters), Esther Williams (in This Time for Keeps) and Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball (in The Big Street). Television After her film career ended, CBS offered Stuart a role in a new undertaking that would become known as the soap opera, or daytime serial. Their first project, The First Hundred Years, was short lived. It had been canceled after just one year on the air. The executives at CBS were wary of launching a second show, but they saw a future in soaps in the person of Stuart after her screen test. It was then that they commissioned a second series. Stuart was cast as housewife Joanne Gardner. The new serial was called Search for Tomorrow and it turned out to be very successful. Stuart would become synonymous with her character. Search for Tomorrow ran for thirty-five years until 1986 when it was finally canceled. During that time her character Joanne "Jo" Gardner was widowed three times and went through many trials and tribulations. She was the only soap star to receive a Primetime Emmy Award nomination