BELFAST, Maine – In an oversize denim work shirt, pants, and sandals, Genie Francis doesn’t look much like Laura, the tender teen whose 1981 TV wedding to Luke on “General Hospital”drew the largest daytime audience in history. But then, she isn’t trying to.
Francis, 44, is now busy embarking on her second act as a Maine shopkeeper.
The flaxen-haired actress whose girlish grin once graced the cover of Newsweek recently opened a home-furnishings store in Belfast, the picturesque harbor town in mid-coast Maine where she lives with her husband, actor Jonathan Frakes, and their two children.
“I’ve always loved interior design,” Francis says while seated on a white couch crowded with pillows. “And I really love Maine.”
Francis and Frakes, who may be best known as Commander Riker on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” met in 1983 on the set of a TV series called “Bare Essence,” and were married in 1988. For several years, they split their time between New York and L.A., spending summers in Maine. A year ago, they moved to Belfast year-round.
The appeal is not just the place with its rocky coastline, Victorian architecture and the lack of traffic. The couple also finds themselves drawn to the people.
“We know everybody by name here and they know us,” she says. “And, they don’t care who we are.”
Located on Route 1 in East Belfast, the store is called The Cherished Home. Francis says that name reflects her commitment to family.
The shop resembles a residence with its themed rooms – living room, bedroom and a kitchen. It occupies both floors of an 1890 house overlooking Penobscot Bay.
An inveterate antiquer who’s been scavenging objets d’art her entire life, Francis had considered selling only rarities and relics, but then she took a look around: If Maine has a growth industry, it may be antiquing.
“I said, ‘This is nuts,”‘ recalls Francis. “I knew I couldn’t do it any better.” Instead, she decided to sell a few antiques and supplemented her stock with new things: wing chairs, bedding, window ware, jewelry and other accessories that weren’t available in the area.
Cozy and decorated in the sherbet shades that are the former soap star’s favorite colors, her store boasts cottage-
style items from Annie Selke’s Berkshires-based companies Pine Cone Hill, Potluck Studios, and The Dash & Albert Rug Co. There are carpets and duvet covers, fleece robes, and leopard-print PJs.
Francis knows her celebrity status might attract a few customers to the store, but she isn’t counting on it. When asked about fame, Francis, who was 19 when Laura married Luke, just laughs. These days, it’s not something she thinks a lot much about.
Francis left “General Hospital” not long after the wedding in 1981. In classic soap fashion, her character disappeared into a dense fog, and then returned to the fictional town of Port Charles in 1993 before leaving again in 2002. Laura was last seen in a straitjacket headed for a psychiatric hospital in London.
Her customers in Maine seem more interested in her role as a budding local businesswoman.
Mary Brett, who lives in nearby Stockton Springs, has been to The Cherished Home several times since it opened. On a recent afternoon, Brett, who’s in pharmaceutical sales, was perusing the sheets, shams, and martini glasses.
“Genie’s a breath of fresh air,” Brett said. “I know she’s an actress on a soap opera, but to me she’s the one with really good taste.”
