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Background: Sandra Dey was born on April 2, 1944, to businessman Harvey Dey and his seamstress wife Florence of Portsmouth, NH. As she grew up, her parents instilled a sense of fairness and the importance of a good education. After graduating from a Catholic girls' high school, she went on to Boston University to study. She quickly became best friends with an older student named Shirley McCray, and she helped Shirley get elected student body president.
When Shirley decided to move off-campus the next year (1962), she asked Sandra to be her roommate. They ended up renting an attic apartment where the previous tenant had left behind a few boxes of things. The landlady told them they could have anything they found in them that they liked. In one of the boxes, Sandra found a fashionable green cape which she kept and used as a shawl. One night, when she was walking home from a lecture, Sandra ran into two men robbing a small jewelry store. When one of the men pulled a gun on her, her fear somehow triggered something in the cape and she vanished. Spooked, the two robbers tried to flee but were apprehended by the police. Inspired by the exploits of Tigerwoman in the late 50's. Sandra decided to make a costume to go along with the cape. She improved her gymnastic skills, picked up some martial arts and even read up on detective procedures. By the fall, with the help of the cape's special abilities, she became Phantom Lady. For the remainder of her college years, she solved mostly smaller crimes in the Boston area. In 1965, she teamed up with Time Lord to help him battle his enemy Timewarp. After college, Sandra had the opportunity to work as an intern for a year in England (1966). During that time, she teamed up with the retired Necromancer to learn the true origins of the cape. She even had opportunity to babysit the Haygner's young son Alan. Sandra returned to the States and joined a Public Relations firm in Boston. It was here where she first met Nicholas Lyons and, despite the advances of the rising PR mogul Taylor J. Jergens, soon fell in love with Nicholas. In 1968, Phantom Lady joined other heroes of Earth and beyond as the Justice Gang. During one of the team's cases, she and the others had their life processes extended slightly by a thankful alien race from Latrommi II. In September of 1972, she married Nicholas Lyons. At her wedding, Shirley convinced Sandra to help her with a campaign for a Senate seat. Sandra's brief foray into politics ended after her friend's election. Four years later, she took a maternity leave from her heroic duties. In 1977, their daughter Samantha was born. Sandra remained an at-home-mother until Sam was old enough to go to school. In 1982, she returned to her costume adventuring and the Justice Gang once more. It was then that she made new enemies like the Tarantula, the Ghost and Shadow Dancer. In 1985, she teamed up with Golden Archer to battle Shadow Dancer and the Mimic. Motivation: Sandra was reluctant to give up being a heroine for quite awhile. Primarily, she wanted someone to pass on her legacy to. Thus she waited for Samantha to be old enough. Her daughter took up crime fighting in 1998 when Sandra retired permanently. Secondarily, Sandra did not want to accept that she was getting too old. She has a strong sense of family, which she feels is the backbone of good person. Even in the changing moral times, she holds onto the ideals her parent's instilled in her. |
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Note: yes, I know my Phantom Lady is a dead-ringer for the same-named heroine from the classic Quality and DC Comics books. She was very much inspired by the character as she appeared in DC's Freedom Fighters comic in the mid-70's. Consider it a homage.