She’s everyone's favorite daytime housekeeper.
Esther Valentine was only supposed to appear for one day when she made her debut on The Young and the Restless in 1982.
“My very first line was something that my family never hears at home which is 'Dinner is served,’” said actress Kate Linder.
From that moment on, the trusty and often comical housekeeper at the Chancellor Estate became a fixture on the show.
Linder has portrayed Esther Valentine for more than three decades.
“I get my script and I'm so excited to plow through it,” she said.
Linder shared her wacky story lines with NewsChannel 3’s Laila Muhammad and fond memories of her TV boss, Katherine Chancellor, portrayed by the late Jeanne Cooper.
“In the beginning, Esther did not have a name. One day we were running the lines. We went to tape and she started calling me Esther,” Linder said. “There's a plaque on her dressing room door that says Jeanne Cooper's room, the door was always open. And that's true. We always would run lines in her room. And even to this day, I catch myself going to her room to run lines and then going 'Oh, my gosh! She's not here' and then going on the set and looking at all her pictures. I just think well she's just not here today. I still think she's here and very much alive and around all of us,” she said.
Linder never quit her other day job. She still takes to the skies, part-time, with United Airlines as a flight attendant.
