Maggie Crawford came to Oakdale with her boyfriend, Tom Hughes, who she met in Sweden. A brilliant attorney who loved a challenge, she was fascinated by John Dixon's marital rape trial and offered to defend him. Though everyone was certain she'd lose, Maggie tore into the case with a vengeance and succeeded in getting Dee to admit that she HAD encouraged John: therefore there was never a rape. After the trial, Tom left town with his assistant, Maggie's niece Margo, to crack a drug ring. Weeks later, he returned and though Maggie was thrilled to see him, she was shocked to learn that he'd fallen in love with Margo! Though hurt at first, she soon realized that the couple were made for each other and gave them her blessing.

Ironically, Maggie would find herself breaking her sister's heart. While in New York City working on a police corruption case, Maggie met, and fell in love, with a cop named Frank Andropoulos. Frank told Maggie that he was already involved with another woman but planned to break it off after meeting her. Maggie was shocked to learn that the other woman was her own sister! Not wanting to hurt Lyla, Maggie broke it off with Frank. Not long after, she found an abandoned baby in the bushes outside Memorial Hospital. Becoming attached to the child, Maggie named her Jill and made plans to adopt her. Knowing that a married couple would have a better chance of adopting a child, Maggie went to Frank (who she still loved) and asked him to marry her. Unfortunately, by this time, Frank had married his friend Diana McColl in order to give her unborn child a name. When Diana miscarried the child, the marriage was annulled and Frank and Maggie were free to plan their wedding. Unfortunately, this time Maggie almost lost Jill to her biological father, Cal Randolph, a scruffy ex-con. At Craig's request, Maggie helped overturn Cal's conviction and helped him start a better life. Though Cal was grateful to Maggie, he hated tough cop Frank and let Diana convince him to get custody of Jill. Though thrilled at the prospect of being rich (Diana received a sizable inheritance when she had a family), Cal quickly realized that his daughter was better off with Maggie and he gave her the child on Christmas Eve, following her wedding to Frank. Months later after successfully cracking the Haskell drug operation, Maggie and her family left Oakdale for California to live near her niece Cricket and her Family.