17 year old Nadine Corley's life was changed forever when she became pregnant with Frank "Buzz" Cooper's baby. A young woman with dreams of stardom in Hollywood, Nadine had to put her dreams on hold to marry Buzz for the sake of the baby, whom they named Frank, Jr. Soon after, Buzz left for a tour in Vietnam and years later applied for a second tour of duty. By now, Nadine was pregnant with their second child, whom she named Harley Davidson Cooper. Shortly after Harley's birth, the war ended and when Buzz never came home, Nadine realized he'd deserted them. Wanting to protect her children, Nadine lied to the family that Buzz was killed in the war. Unfortunately, eking out a living at the Cooper "Wheels and Meals" diner as a single mother didn't appeal to Nadine and she left Springfield, and left her children in the care of Buzz's father.

Nadine returned to town in 1988, as soon as she learned that Harley was marrying into the wealthy Spaulding family. A materialistic woman with the eye on the good life, Nadine ingratiated herself with the temporarily paralyzed Alan Spaulding's life by acting as his private nurse. Learning that Alan was faking his paralysis, Nadine saw an opportunity and blackmailed Alan in marrying her in 1989. Though Alan was forced to announce their engagement, the point became moot when he was exposed and sent to prison. At the same time that she was seeing Alan, Nadine found herself falling for upstanding attorney Ross Marler. However, when Nadine realized that Ross still had feelings for his old flame, Vanessa Chamberlain, she bowed out of the relationship. Finally, in 1990, Nadine found love with Billy Lewis, a recovered alcoholic who'd fallen off the wagon. Though Billy was in love with Vanessa, his ex-wife, he had lots of fun with Nadine and liked her bubbly personality. Though Billy was set to marry Vanessa, he and Nadine ended up having an affair in Cross Creek, leaving Vanessa standing at the altar. When Vanessa learned that Billy was in Cross Creek with Nadine while she was standing at the altar, she broke the engagement. Unfortunately, Billy's drinking affected his work performance as well and he was fired from Lewis Oil and Vanessa was hired to replace him. Betrayed, Billy went to Las Vegas with Nadine, in January 1991, and married her. Though the Coopers were outraged, Billy assured them that he did love their mother. Later, he stopped drinking and, with Vanessa's help, Billy resumed his role as head of Lewis Oil. With his life back on track, Billy remarried Nadine in a church ceremony.

In 1992, Billy helped Vanessa press charges against Jack Kiley, a businessman who attempted to rape her. Though Vanessa didn't want her name in the newspapers, Nadine spitefully leaked the information to the press. When Billy learnt about this, he moved out of the house. Later, Billy moved back home but into separate beds. About this time, Nadine realized that Billy really wanted to be with Vanessa but Nadine was unwilling to let Billy go, so she decided the only way to keep him was to get pregnant. Nadine's golden opportunity came when she learned that teenaged Bridget Reardon was pregnant. Nadine convinced Bridget to give her the child after it was born and hid her away so no one would know she was pregnant. During the pregnancy, Bridget was in the attic, while Nadine used pillows and other tricks to convince everyone that she was expecting Billy's baby. Nadine's plan worked perfectly with no one suspecting the truth, that is except for Buzz who returned to town and saw Nadine remove the pillow! Both shocked to see one another, Nadine agreed to keep Buzz's identity a secret (passing him off as her cousin, Rex Mancini) if he kept quiet about her "pregnancy." Finally, when Bridget gave birth to a boy, whom she named Peter, in February 1993, Nadine passed him off as her own.

Unfortunately, Nadine's victory didn't last very long. Suspicious of Nadine's pregnancy and Bridget's behavior, Vanessa investigated and got Bridget to confess the truth. Exposed, Nadine was thrown out of Billy's house. Ashamed, Nadine was forced to crawl back to her old life at the 5th Street Diner. Surprisingly, she was supported by her family and humbly accepted her life at the Diner. Nadine's best friend during this period was Buzz. By this time, they both realized that they had married way too young and neither could handle the pressure of raising children. Nadine's soul mate was Buzz but, unfortunately, his true love was Jenna Bradshaw. Soon, Nadine found out (after looking through Jenna's bag), that Jenna was pregnant with her husband, Roger Thorpe's baby. In an effort to keep Jenna away from Buzz, Nadine told Roger that he was going to be a father. By now, Buzz thought about giving Nadine what she wanted and proposing. He was going to do so on Thanksgiving but, when he saw Jenna looking through the window, he changed his mind.

Later, in 1994, Buzz entered into a scheme with ex-con Pauly Hardman to recover the $125,000 that Pauly stole years before and left in a locker while he was in prison. When Jenna found out, she was upset but they decided to keep the money while Jenna turned down Alan-Michael's continued backing because she didn't want to hurt Buzz. However, Nadine found the money and decided it was best to flush it down the toilet. Jenna was furious when Buzz defended Nadine for what she'd done since she was tired of him always sticking up for Nadine. Afterwards, Buzz shocked Jenna by proposing. Buzz and Jenna then agreed to meet at the top of the Towers to get married; if neither showed then the other would know the other didn't want to. Buzz arrived late though and thought Jenna had decided not to show. Buzz, distraught and fleeing the police, wandered in the rain and became ill. Nadine hid him but Jenna found out and nursed a delirious Buzz while trying to figure out a way to get the money back to get Buzz off the hook with the authorities. Later, when Buzz came to his senses, Nadine lied about Jenna being there.

In the end, Nadine and family repaid the money via mortgage on the diner and Eleni's catering business and Buzz was remanded into Nadine's protective custody. Although Buzz and Jenna briefly reunited, she was concerned that he still had feelings for Nadine and left again. Meanwhile Nadine convinced Buzz they could get back the money by being on the game show Soul Mates. At the same time, Jenna found out she was pregnant and was about to tell Buzz when she saw him and Nadine on television posing as a couple. Jenna called the studio and asked if all the couples had to be married to participate. The answer was yes and the producers asked Buzz and Nadine for verification that they were married. To secure the money, Buzz and Nadine married in Las Vegas. Jenna located Buzz just in time to see he and Nadine proclaimed man and wife at a tacky chapel. She left unseen and went home. Buzz and Nadine won the money and Buzz was a free man and he decided to try to make his marriage to Nadine work since he felt he owed it to her. Nadine later found out Jenna was pregnant but didn't tell Buzz. Jenna once again tried to tell Buzz, on the advice of Vanessa, but Buzz told her he was with Nadine now and didn't want to talk to her. So, Jenna, tired of being pregnant and unable to enjoy it, decided to leave town. Meanwhile, Nadine started to feel guilty and, while out of town with Buzz, Natadine tried to tell Buzz about Jenna.

Unfortunately, Buzz only caught part of what Nadine said and rushed out before he heard about the baby. He hitchhiked his way to Springfield and finally saw Jenna at the airport but the fence divided them, and he still didn't realize she was eight months pregnant! Buzz pleaded with her to stay but Jenna felt it was too late and left. Though Nadine never relayed the news, she did realize that Buzz would never love her as much as he loved Jenna, and in 1995, she divorced him. Months later, tragedy struck. As she was preparing to leave town on an extended trip, Nadine started having premonitions that implied that Marion Crane's life was in danger. Worried, she went to Marion's room and started snooping around. It was then that Nadine learned that Marion Crane was Brent Lawrence, the fugitive who had raped Buzz's daughter, Lucy, months earlier! It was at that moment that Brent entered and killed Nadine with a candlestick--exactly as in Nadine's premonition--and threw her body in the lake. Because the Coopers believed that Nadine had left town, they suspected nothing until her body was found months later.

In April 2003, Harley was shot while handling a domestic dispute. Near death, she would have a vision of Nadine who urged her to hold onto life. Later, on Thanksgiving, Harley called upon her mother's memory to help her prepare Thanksgiving dinner. Though Nadine could never cook, she was able to tell Harley why it was so important for her to try--she wanted to be closer to her family. On Mother's Day 2006, Nadine paid an other-worldly visit to Harley, who was now working as CEO of Spaulding. While pretending to be encouraging about Harley's rise to power at Spaulding, Nadine actually demonstrated how the wheeling and dealing was not for her. Nadine made Harley see that she had turned into Alan Spaulding with blonde hair and boobs. Faced with that, Harley decided to step down at Spaulding and return to what she loved--investigating. Later that day, Nadine, as well as Jenna, voiced their opinions about Olivia Spencer, who was caught in a triangle with Frank and Buzz. While Nadine thought Olivia would be bad for Frank but good for Buzz, Jenna didn't like the driven Olivia for either man.