Peacemaker

Brynn Thayer:
Libra * October 4
"The Peacemaker"

By Pam Payne
Soap Opera Digest, October 1979.

Listen, Libra, you're going to have to make up your mind! You've got to decide whether you're going to be the peacemaker or the rabble-rouser. We in the other signs are often baffled by your duality. Most times you seek harmony in situations --- even compromising to your detriment at times --- to keep things peaceful. We get used to the idea you're going to step into an argument between friends, see the good on each side and help affect a harmonious outcome. We get used to that, Libra.

Then, the Barbara Walters, Jack Andersons, and Rona Barretts of your sign come along, questioning, probing, unearthing and exposing, and we're knocked back on our heels trying to figure out the dichotomy. Which are you, Libra, peacemaker or peace disturber?

A little rhetoric there, but an example of how frustrating Librans can be. Just when you think you've got them pegged as beautiful, serene, peace-loving, discord-hating people, the 'other side of the coin' surfaces. This is due in part to their intense sense of justice and fair play. The need for harmony can be overcome when they see obvious injustice in their surroundings, keeping with their desire to balance those ever teeter-tottering scales which symbolize their sign.

A young woman who is relatively new to the soap scene, BRYNN THAYER ("Jenny" on "One Life To Live"), is the definite peacemaker type of Libra.

"Yes," she admits, "no hesitation there. I'm not great in conflict. I think I do try to see both sides, but sometimes too much. I've just found that out in the last couple of years. That brings me more frustration, I think, than anything. I can't make things congenial and happy all the time."

This ability to look at both sides often appears as vacillation and indecision in the minds of others. But is it? If one of the facets of Libra is to see that harmony reigns, then it follows they will attempt to bring that harmony into each situation, which could seem like vacillation to the various people being dealt with. Brynn reflects this in her makeup. "I hate for anybody to be unhappy, but I'm trying to even myself our a little bit. I'm trying to have more conviction in what I say, and know I can't make everybody happy all the time." When such a trait is an integral part of the sun sign, it's difficult to change, but recognizing it has to give her an advantage.

Because Librans are social animals, they are most comfortable with a stimulating bunch of friends who have something going on a lot of the time. Brynn had a shocking example of this early in her adult life. She attended the University of Arkansas and was part of a sorority and the hubbub of campus life. In her senior year, she married her college sweetheart and went directly to Washington, D.C., where he studied to be an FBI agent, and she taught school and drove a school bus. After a little more than a year, they realized they didn't know each other as well as they thought, that the marriage wasn't going to work, and they split as good friends.

From there, Brynn went to live with several women who were in politics. It was during this time she realized, "I never was alone, really, until after my divorce. I never spent any hours --- I was afraid to be by myself --- and with my divorce came the first time I ever spent any time alone. A campaign was in progress, and the women had to leave town, so I was left in the house by myself for the weekend. It was very scary.

"I remember on Monday, when I had to pick up my first child on the bus route, and he got on the bus and said hello to me and I replied, my voice scared me. Because it was the first time I had heard my voice in three full days."

It would have been easy for Brynn to decide that to remedy that she just would never put herself in that position again. But as we have seen, she's a person who recognizes the areas that need work and sets about to do just that. Her chart indicates she's psychologically rugged, able to accept change, to approach things with practicality and resolve. "From then on, I started spending more time with myself and not have to be, or feel the need to be, entertained. Then, after being in New York for a while, I felt the need to be alone, to get away from the hustle and bustle and people and just have the solitude and the quiet to enjoy myself."

Most times though, Brynn enjoys being with her special friends, many of whom she's had since elementary school. This is due to a Scorpio influence in her chart. Scorpios are known most often for their rapier-like tongue, but not so frequently for their heartfelt loyalty and friendship. Those who show genuine sympathy and accord, receive that in return and more from a Scorpio-influenced individual.

In Brynn's case, tempered by her Libra sun, her emotions and love are very much involved in her friendships. "Yes," she acknowledges, "I have a lot of close friends with whom I keep in touch. Maybe five or six or even a few more than that from high school, college and elementary school. Friends I feel I'm very close to. I was just in Arkansas last week and got together with a couple of sorority sisters and had a great time, it was like we'd never been gone * just terrific."

When Brynn and her friends get together, it's often to be in the big outdoors to enjoy the scenery and the special camaraderie that develops when friends engage in sports activities. Her interests in this life started when she was very young.

Born in Fort Worth, Texas, to a test pilot and his wife, Brynn was an only child and an active tomboy who enjoyed receiving such things as electric trains and baseballs for Christmas and birthdays. She has a special closeness with her mom, and remembers fondly how her love of sports came about from being with her dad. "He taught me to scuba dive when I was pretty young. And I used to have a horse in Texas and would ride every day after school. I love to water-ski. I used to water-ski a lot in Dallas --- where we moved --- because there are a lot of old lakes around. I took up snow-skiing, I guess, really seriously, about five-six years ago. Love to do that * I'm not great at anything," she allows, "but I can do everything a little bit, sports-wise. But I'm certainly not an expert at anything. Just sort of out there doing it for fun and to be with the gang."

The first thing the women at the University of Arkansas sorority learned about Brynn was that she loved the soaps. She deliberately scheduled her classes around "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" and "All My Children". After her marriage ended, she went back to Dallas and roomed with a friend, a model, who had decided to try New York, and Brynn accompanied her.

She tried modeling, didn't do too well, but just as her savings were about to give out, she got a commercial assignment which kept her afloat and she started doing quite well in the commercial field. Studying acting and taking voice lessons to lose her Texas accent, she also slipped in a soap opera technique class, just in case.

Brynn was in the middle of a Nabisco crackers commercial when her agents advised her she was up for the role of "Jenny". "I had watched 'One Life', so I knew who Kathy Glass was and I loved her -- thought she was great. And I thought, 'This is unbelievable. How am I ever going to do this?'" But, of course, she did, and got the role. "I went bananas. I guess it's a typical reaction. I didn't know how everybody would feel. But I immediately called my mother who wasn't home and then my dad at the office, who was in, and we just went crazy, it was so exciting.

It's been just about a year now since Brynn joined OLTL and it's still like a dream, going to the studio and being with the people she watched on the screen for so long.

She certainly didn't hesitate to make the decision to accept the role of 'Jenny', but as for making instant decisions most time, a pet Libra hate, Brynn takes a loooong pause, and then says: " * I don't hate to *" Another long pause. " * No, that doesn't bother me. If I'm pressured to do it, I'll do it," she says with resolve, but it's obviously against the grain! *

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Memories of David and Jenny