Maggie Horton is a long-running fictional character from Days of Our Lives, an American soap opera on the NBC network, played by actress Suzanne Rogers since 1973. The character was created by scriptwriter William J. Bell and producer Betty Corday as a romantic interest for original character Mickey Horton (John Clarke). For her work as Maggie, Rogers won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 1979. Maggie's storylines often focus on romance and family troubles. She is portrayed as a stoic, opinionated, and family-oriented woman who is generally loving and supportive, but occasionally interferes in her friends' and relatives' lives. A prominent storyline in 1984 included Maggie discovering that she had Myasthenia Gravis, which mirrored Rogers' real-life struggles with the disease. In 2003, Maggie was killed off in a "whodunnit?" murder storyline involving a serial killer. Rogers returned to the show in 2004 after producer James E. Reilly decided to have all the murder victims turn up alive on the island of Melaswen, or "New Salem" spelled backwards. Maggie's most well-known relationship was her longtime marriage to original series character Mickey Horton. The characters met during Rogers' first episode in 1973, when Maggie cared for him while living on a farm. Following a series of experiences together, the pair grew extremely close, and their bond became central to both characters until Mickey's death in 2010. The character has been described as a "legend" and a television icon. In August 2013, she celebrated 40 years on the soap, becoming its longest-running character.