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Recap[]
John Boy is having trouble making his payments on his newspaper printing press and the bank warns him that if he doesn't come up with the cash to make the payments which are in arrears, then they will seize his press. The point he makes, however, is that if they take his press they will take away his potential to earn the necessary money. The banker suggests that John Boy may be able to investigate selling a piece of land on Waltons Mountain that he owns. The land dealer offers him a good deal for his land, and so he sells, much to his grandfather's disgust. When John Boy investigates another current land development project being pursued by the same company as he sold his land to, he discovers that the company uses the land for hydraulic mining, a system of mining that destroys the land so completely that nothing will ever grow there again. The company aims to buy up enough parcels of land to enable them to set up this type of mining on Waltons Mountain. While John Boy is trying to dissuade the rest of the people from selling their land, Mary Ellen faces her own crisis when she is nursing a badly injured Martha Rose. Martha Rose is having difficulty breathing after she fell from a ladder and in order to save her life, Curt must perform surgery. Instead of helping him Mary Ellen faints and feels that she has let Curt down. After speaking with her mother she goes over to the Church, where she finds that Rosemary Fordwick has gone into labour. Her husband left her to go to find Curt and with a bad storm brewing Rosemary doesn't want Mary Ellen to leave her alone. Mary Ellen redeems herself admirably when she delivers Rosemary's baby, little Mary Margaret Fordwick.
Recurring Role[]
- Joe Conley as Ike Godsey
- Ronnie Claire Edwards as Corabeth Walton Godsey
- John Ritter as Reverend Matthew Fordwick
- Mariclaire Costello as Rosemary Hunter Fordwick
- Cindy Eilbacher as Martha Rose Coverdale