Daytime legend Mary Beth Evans is certainly an absolute joy to talk to. She can be very enthusiastic, especially on a subject she feels passionate about. One could also easily describe her as "energized" and a "go-getter." I managed to catch up with this very busy actress, wife, and mother, and have an absolutely wonderful and informative chat about the things that all Americans (Evans included) hold sacred: Kids, apple pie - and Steve and Kayla.

Evans, who is currently on recurring status as Sierra on As the World Turns, has never been one to find her plate lacking. By mutual agreement, she slowed down her taping schedule with the show and says, "Just this last year, I was going (east) pretty much every week, then it was like I was going for twenty-four hours a week, which was a little grueling on my system." The exits of Hunt Block (Craig) and Peyton List (Lucy) found the character of Sierra suddenly without her own story. The show presented her with an idea that she was more than willing to agree to. "He (the executive producer) says, 'I really want to write for you but we have all these things on the canvas right now. So why don't we go back to how we did it before, where we do concentrated intervals, and when I have a good story, have you come back?' I just thought it sounded better," she admits, "That twenty-four hour thing was so hard." Of her As the World Turns family, she says, "I just love the characters! Martha (Byrne, Lily) and the woman that plays her mother, Elizabeth (Hubbard, Lucinda), we're really close. You know, soap operas tend to bring very normal people who want a normal life. That's what you find there and I like that."

Evans, of course, speaks from experience. She has been in the daytime industry for twenty years ("Isn't that the craziest?" she laughs), starting with her first "soap" role on the syndicated primetime drama Rituals, where she portrayed beleaguered Dakota Lane. "With Kin Shriner and Jon Lindstrom," she shares, both of whom she would cross paths with again in fictional Port Charles. "I was working with Kin Shriner on General Hospital and now on As the World Turns, although we hardly said a word to each other, which we laughed about. But we wanted to go like, 'Don't I know you from somewhere?' So your lives cross the longer you stay in." How does Evans view the evolution of soaps since her first role? "That (Rituals) was a first-run, syndication nighttime soap, which hadn't been done before. It never really found it's niche because it was kind of a new-fangled thing, which is why I think it didn't last," Evans theorizes, "But if you move up to Days, where that's more of a normal situation. I don't think it (soaps) has changed that much. I think they still focus on young couples in love, or who's not in love, and who's in love and can't have each other, and all that. I would imagine the viewers have changed quite a bit, because there is so much more television."

The year of her marriage to Dr. Michael Schwartz (1985) would also mark the beginning of the role that would make her famous, that of Kayla Brady on Days of Our Lives; a role (and cast) that she still holds dear to her heart. "I went to their 40th anniversary party the other day, and I was so happy to see all those people that I don't see very often," Evans gushes, "And that was my first show. I'll always think of it as my first family. And Frank Parker (Shawn Sr.), the guy who played my dad - we'd see each other and go 'Oh my God!'" All this talk about Days leads to the inevitable question: Is reprising Kayla in the cards? "Everyone asks that question and I know as much as everyone else," the actress states, "I always thought it was funny that they didn't ask us (she and Stephen Nichols, who portrayed Steve) back. At different times either one or the other one wasn't available. But I think it's funny. We were very popular, and so it seems like people still ask that question, so it seems like they'd like us back. But it just never has happened. I have no idea why."

Still, her memories of life in Salem, and later Port Charles, are extremely fond ones. "I loved a lot of the stuff that Stephen and I did," she sighs, "I loved the vulnerability and the strength of that character. I thought we were so connected to each other -we're still like that. We get it. I don't think you get that every time with someone. And I really loved the 'Emily and Gideon' story. That, to me, was so much fun and I thought that story was beautiful, and I loved that whole deal. That one has always stood out in my mind." After her stint as Kayla came to an end, Evans joined the cast of General Hospital as the devious Katherine Bell. "The whole Quartermaine group -all those guys - I just adored them!" she shares, "I just saw Wally (Kurth, ex-Ned), Billy (Warlock, ex-AJ, currently Days' Frankie) and John Ingle (ex-Edward, now Days' Mickey), and you know, it's just very, very sweet. I live a very different in that I don't hang out with actors and I've got three kids....But when I see them I just think 'They're a part of the fabric of my life and family.'" Any favorite Katherine moments? "I actually liked the fun stuff I did with John York (Mac), the sort of playful fun stuff we did. The bubble bath (scene) and the whatever. I ended up liking the 'Tyler Christopher (Nikolas)' story, but at first I thought, 'You know, you call me Mommy, it's over!' But he's such a loving, sweet person that it actually worked out okay."

The veteran day timer clearly knows which side her acting bread is buttered on, and it is soap operas. "It's a weird catch-22, " she says candidly about staying in the medium, "I tell my agent, send me out for things. I don't care what it is. So if it's like a little two-paragraph thing, that's what it's going to be because I took too much time in soaps." Still, she has never regretted a single moment of it. "I have no regrets about it because I've enjoyed that life and I think I'm good at it, so it's not a hardship for me. Insomuch as TV, at my age, I'm not going to get the juiciest stuff. But on daytime, I can. You can be in your fifties and still be having affairs and whatever....It just seems like there's more longevity and I'm further along in the soap world than I am in the other."

"You've just got to go where the work is and try to do your best and stay in the groove. I love working and I love being busy, and so wherever that takes you..."

Taking full advantage of her currently abbreviated As the World Turns schedule, Evans headed back home to the west coast and took on a new venture: Apple pies!

At the suggestion of her husband Michael, Evans decided to market her family recipe for apple pie, which arrives frozen and ready to bake. "To actually do something like that, it's so huge..," Evans confesses, "And then I thought maybe I'll just pursue it and see where it takes me. I know nothing about business. I know nothing about any of it." The idea of taking on a new project proved to be both exciting and a little scary. "I made a postcard (announcing her new endeavor) and sent it out to five-hundred local people, and in the first couple of days, I got like fifty orders!" she marvels, " And people on the internet were ordering and wanting to order from back east. And I was like 'Oh, I don't know. I'm not shipping....Oh God!' I (initially) thought I would just do an internet site and just do shipping, but that actually became pretty difficult because there is so much involved with shipping a frozen pie. That's the kind of thing that pushes you along."

The new business had started to take off quickly and Evans says that her soon-to-be famous apple pies will be available to ship nationwide around the first week of December. She has lined up a company to handle sending the product out to customers in the mid-west and points east; Evans herself will take on the west coast orders. She was also recently approached at an event, where she received business advice - and yet another whopping request for her delicious dessert: fifty corporate gift boxes. "I was excited of the concept of wrapping a box, " she says giddily, "Now it's more important to me than making the money or making a pie. Then it was like, how will I decorate that box?! I'm just a creative person who always was doing something!"

"I think I'm going to do six months like this, at least, because I'm good at it," she states, "I know how to do it. I think it's a great product. I just want to concentrate on that and see if I can get rolling and then go from there."

Where does this busy mother of three find the time for all her pursuits? "I'm always rushing around, and rushing in to do my job for the day, and rushing back to my life, " she confesses, "So I'd had these stomach aches and my mother was like, 'What do you expect? Geez, you're going ninety miles an hour all the time!' But I just seem to like it like that. It makes me feel more alive. I just don't want to be obsessive about wrinkles, or be out shopping because I'm bored. I just don't want to live that life. I want to feel full. That's always my pursuit, to feel fulfilled."

In between her apple pie business, and her role as Sierra, Evans sees the rewards of her efforts every day in the form of her blissful marriage and beautiful family. The proud mom of two sons and a daughter, Evans has always instilled in them individuality, pursuing their own interests - and always being professional, a trait she herself learned from acting in daytime for twenty years and counting. "I tell my kids all the time because if they want to be sick and not go to school, I say, 'I've never called in sick in my entire life!' I had morning sickness and was dieting and I was still at Days of Our Lives at 5:45 in the morning, " Evans says, "The show must go on and I think you have to think about that in all aspects of your life." Presently, oldest son Danny is enjoying his last year of high school and is currently knee-deep in college applications. Mom laughs, "I know when the deadlines are and I'll see him watching TV, and I'll be like, 'Shouldn't you be filling out those applications?' It never ends!" Fifteen-year-old Katie, whom Evans proudly describes as a "diligent student and a hard worker," has now stepped into the world of learning how to drive. "She never takes her hands off the wheel, even in a turn," Evans giggles, "You know, she runs out of radius on those two hands. It's hilarious!" Evans is not quite sure what description applies to youngest son, Matthew. She says with a laugh, "He is like this weird uber-athlete. He's on like a club baseball team, club water polo (a sport all Evans' children enjoy), playing basketball at school and squeezing in homework in between! My daughter even said to him the other day, 'Who are you?' like he's so weird because he loves sports so much!"

"We're very happy and we have the same goals," she admits candidly of her marriage to Michael, "To raise healthy, well-adjusted, enlightened children. And I think we're doing that."

What is the next big thing for Mary Beth? "I'm not sure," she tells me, "As the World Turns is still a viable situation. So that will happen. And I really want to get these pies launched. I don't know...."

"There's a couple of other...well, I don't want to say," she teases, "We'll just stick with that for now. We'll see what happens. I'm always game!"

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mary Beth Evans for taking time out of her busy schedule to give this most enjoyable interview for Soaptown. To visit Mary Beth's official site click the link below.