Sheryl Lynn Herring (born September 22, 1958) is an American actress and beauty pageant titleholder. She is known for her role as

Lucy Coe Lucy Coe is a fictional character from the ABC Daytime soap operas ''General Hospital'' and ''Port Charles''. Portrayed by Lynn Herring, she first appeared in April 1986 on ''General Hospital'', introduced as an alibi in a murder plot. In 1997, ...

on the long-running soap opera ''

General Hospital ''General Hospital'' (often abbreviated as ''GH'') is an American daytime television soap opera created by Frank and Doris Hursley which has been broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC since April 1, 1963. Originally a half-hour seria ...

'' which she has played on and off since 1986.

Early life

Herring was born in

Enid, Oklahoma Enid ( ) is the ninth-largest city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It is the county seat of Garfield County, Oklahoma, Garfield County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 51,308. Enid was founded during the openin ...

. Before acting, Herring was

Miss Virginia USA The Miss Virginia USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Virginia in the Miss USA pageant. Virginia has been only moderately successful in terms of number of semi-finalists. They have had two Miss USAs. ...

1977, and was 4th runner-up to Kimberly Tomes for the title of

Miss USA Miss USA is an American beauty pageant that has been held annually since 1952 to select the entrant from United States in the Miss Universe pageant. The Miss Universe Organization operated both pageants, as well as Miss Teen USA, until 2020. ...

1977. She earned a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

in psychology from

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

Acting career

Herring is best known for her work in

daytime television Daytime is a block of television programming taking place during the late-morning and afternoon on weekdays. Daytime programming is typically scheduled to air between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., following the early morning ...

, first portraying the role of mousy

librarian A librarian is a person who professionally works managing information. Librarians' common activities include providing access to information, conducting research, creating and managing information systems, creating, leading, and evaluating educat ...

Lucy Coe on ''

'' in 1986. Over time, Lucy became much more glamorous and man-hungry, and the role proved to be very lucrative for Herring. She left after six years to explore other opportunities, which led to a role on ''

Days of Our Lives ''Days of Our Lives'' (also stylized as ''Days of our Lives''; simply referred to as ''Days'' or ''DOOL'') is an American television soap opera that aired on the network NBC from November 8, 1965, to September 9, 2022; the soap has streamed n ...

''. Her character,

Lisanne Gardner A list of notable characters from the NBC soap opera ''Days of Our Lives'' that significantly impacted storylines and debuted between 1990 and 1999. Stephanie Johnson Stephanie Johnson was created by head writer Richard J. Allen (writer), Richa ...

, was never fully developed, and Herring asked to be let out of her contract with the show. ''Days'' producers agreed, and she then returned to ''General Hospital''. She played Lucy on ''General Hospital'' until 1997, when she was asked to reprise her character on a spin-off series called ''

Port Charles ''Port Charles'' (commonly abbreviated as ''PC'') is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from June 1, 1997, to October 3, 2003. It was a spin-off of the series ''General Hospital'', which has been running since 1963 and takes p ...

''. She appeared on the series until it was canceled in 2003, and subsequently made a brief return to ''General Hospital'' in 2004. She joined the cast of ''

As the World Turns ''As the World Turns'' (often abbreviated as ''ATWT'') is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS for 54 years from April 2, 1956, to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created ''As the World Turns'' as a sister show to her other so ...

'' on July 24, 2009, as Audrey Coleman. On November 2, 2012, after more than eight years off-screen, it was announced that Herring would return to ''General Hospital'' as Lucy in December. She first aired on December 17.

Personal life

Herring was married to actor

Wayne Northrop Wayne Alan Northrop (April 12, 1947 – November 29, 2024) was an American actor known for his parts in soap operas such as ''Dynasty'' and ''Days of Our Lives''. Wayne Northrop died on November 29th, 2024 in Los Angeles, California of complicatio ...

from May 1981 until his death in 2024. They had two sons: Hank Wayne, born on January 9, 1991, and Grady Lee, born on July 20, 1993, in Los Angeles. They owned and ran a working cattle ranch in the Madera County area of

Raymond Raymond is a male given name of Germanic origin. It was borrowed into English from French (older French spellings were Reimund and Raimund, whereas the modern English and French spellings are identical). It originated as the Germanic ᚱᚨᚷ� ...

. In a February 2007 interview, Herring's former co-star

Kin Shriner Kin Herbert Shriner (born December 6, 1953) is an American actor, best known for his portrayal of Scott Baldwin on the ABC soap opera ''General Hospital'' and its spin-off, ''Port Charles''. Early life Shriner and his twin brother, actor Wi ...

said of Herring: "She's living a life that most women would love. She's going to restore an old train depot on land up where she lives and bring it back to a sort of museum quality. She's lobbying. She's back at school. She's working with animals. She's got her two boys. She's like

Barbara Stanwyck Barbara Stanwyck (; born Ruby Catherine Stevens; July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was an American actress and dancer. A stage, film, and television star, during her 60-year professional career, she was known for her strong, realistic screen p ...

in ''

The Big Valley ''The Big Valley'' is an American Western television series that originally aired from September 15, 1965, to May 19, 1969 on ABC. The series is set on the fictional Barkley Ranch in Stockton, California, from 1884 to 1888. The one-hour epis ...

''. She's running the whole town."

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Herring, Lynn 1958 births Living people 20th-century American actresses Actresses from Oklahoma American soap opera actresses Louisiana State University alumni Miss USA 1970s delegates Actors from Enid, Oklahoma 21st-century American actresses