Registered nurse Jane Fletcher arrived in Los Angeles, CA, in 1962. Jane was introduced as the half-sister of Dr. Paul Fletcher, who was going through a trying time with his wife Anne Benedict Fletcher. Paul had recently opened up a clinic to treat indigent patients in a poor neighborhood of Los Angeles and Anne and her father, Henry, were begging Paul to close down the clinic and go back to work as chief-of-staff at Cedars Hospital. Unfortunately, Jane did nothing to help the situation since she was too consumed by her own problems. Jane was suffering from the aftereffects of a disastrous romance she had had during her nurse's training in Boston. She soon roommates with Julie Conrad, attorney George Hayes's secretary. The two became friends and Jane observed firsthand Julie's shameless pursuit of law clerk, Mike Bauer. Bert Bauer, Mike's mom, took to Jane immediately and tried to match her up with Mike, but to her chagrin, she soon discovered that the sexy Julie was angling to become the next Mrs. Michael Bauer, and Mike was beginning to take notice.

Later, Julie found herself pregnant with Mike's child. In hopes of keeping this development a secret, Mike coldly told Julie that he would support her financially until the baby was born, but he fully expected her to give the child up for adoption. Julie might have gone along with his plan had it not been for Jane. Cynical about men in general, Jane wanted everyone to know that Mike was callous and insensitive in his treatment of her friend. Jane told Paul about Julie's pregnancy, and then blabbed to Bert that she was going to be a grandmother! Under duress from his mother, and George, Mike married Julie.

Left without a roommate, Jane moved in with the widowed Paul to take care of her little nephew, Johnny. She briefly dated Peter Nelson, an affable young doctor who worked at Paul's clinic, but he soon jilted her because he was more interested in Robin, Paul's new secretary. Paul was also beginning to look at Robin, for the first time, as a woman rather than a confused, alienated teenager. Jane was quick to pick up on the growing attraction between Paul and Robin, and she didn't like it one bit! Wounded once again by a broken romance, Jane sought refuge with Paul and Johnny to the point where she was beginning to look at her brother and nephew more as a husband and son. With uncanny precision, this would-be spinster infected little Johnny with her twisted mind. By the time Paul and Robin announced plans to marry, Johnny was convinced that he was losing his father to an evil woman who had set out to take his mother's place -- all thanks to Auntie Dearest, Jane.

By 1964, Johnny Fletcher was becoming quite the little tyrant. Helene Benedict tried to convince her grandson to accept Paul and Robin's engagement, but Henry and Jane kept indulging the boy. Buckling under the child's pressure, Robin called off the engagement to Paul and went to New York. George eventually tracked her down and innocently left her address with Jane while Paul went to fetch his lady love. Salivating at this golden opportunity to wreak more havoc, Jane called Robin and tipped her off that Paul was on the way, adding that she thought she did the right thing by leaving him. Robin eluded Paul, but he caught up with her and hey married secretly in New York. Meanwhile, George received a letter from Robin's New York roommate informing him of Jane's phone call. Never one to mince words, George let Jane have it with both barrels and told her to get a life!

Paul and Robin returned home and told no one about their marriage except for Meta and Bruce Banning and George, who decided not to tell Paul about Jane's damaging phone call to Robin in New York. The newlyweds led separate lives for a while until Robin accompanied Paul to a medical convention. When Jane called Paul's hotel to tell him that Johnny was having problems at school, the desk clerk told her that Paul was with "Mrs. Fletcher." Devastated, Jane told Johnny that his daddy had lied to them and Johnny ran away. When he turned up later at the Children's Zoo, the boy not only rejected Paul and Robin, but added his aunt Jane to the list. Johnny stayed briefly with his grandparents in San Francisco and returned home to Paul at Helene's firm insistence. Determined to salvage both his marriage and his relationship with his son, Paul angrily ordered Jane out of his home and his life!

By this time, it was 1965, and all this was too much for Jane to bear. She wandered around the city, blabbing incoherently until the police finally picked her up. George stepped in and tried to help her, advising her to make the most of her nurturing tendencies and return to nursing. One night, during a heated argument, Jane bolted out onto a dark street. George followed, only to be struck by a car. He underwent a craniotomy and awoke with retrograde amnesia, calling out his former fiancée, Mary. Racked with guilt, Jane volunteered to be George's special nurse, and she soon realized that she was falling in love. She feared their growing bond would be shattered if George remembered their old antagonism. Gradually, George's memory returned with the help of a specialist who suggested he play the piano, a pastime he had enjoyed in his youth. Putting his stormy past encounters with Jane aside, George asked her to marry him.

Shortly thereafter, in 1966 - 1967, along with Paul and Robin, George and Jane moved to the Midwestern city of Springfield. When Jane gave birth to a little girl, Amy, their life seemed complete. Seeing how Jane had transformed herself, Paul and Robin found it in their hearts to forgive her as well. With the help of Nurse Martha Frazier, Jane got a job at the Springfield branch of Cedars Hospital. Jane would be there to lend support to Paul and Robin, when the now teenaged and insolent Johnny came to Springfield. Johnny still disapproved of Robin and his father but at this point, Jane disagreed with him. A litter later, Jane would also be there to comfort Paul when Robin killed herself because she picked up on feelings Paul had for new Cedars' psychologist, Dr. Sara McIntyre. That was the last we'd see of Jane and after both Paul and Johnny left Springfield (separately), the Fletchers weren't be heard from again.