 When Nora debuted in 1992, she quickly made a connection with fans for her backstory as the Jewish attorney and ex-wife of previously-established African American Llanview District Attorney, Hank Gannon (Nathan Purdee), and mother to his daughter and Llanview University college student, Rachel (Ellen Bethea).She has an older sister, Susannah Hanen (Maureen Anderman), a psychiatrist who helped Victoria Lord (Erika Slezak) integrate her varied personas.Nora's popularity continued to grow as she played a key role in some of the show's most popular storylines on the 1990s, most notably the Marty Saybrooke (Susan Haskell) gang rape trial in 1993.