Agnes Nixon (née Eckhardt; December 10, 1922 – September 28, 2016) was an American television writer and producer, and the creator of the ABC soap operas One Life to Live, All My Children, as well as Loving and its spin-off The City.

[5] During her time on Guiding Light, Nixon is believed to have written the first health-related storyline on a daytime soap opera.

Nixon, "tired of the restraints imposed by the WASPy, non-controversial nature of daytime drama", presented the network with a startlingly original premise and cast of characters.

The first few years of the show were rich in issue stories and characters including a Jewish character (Dave Siegel), an Irish American family (the Rileys), and some of the first African American leading roles in soap operas with Sadie Gray (Lillian Hayman), Carla Gray (Ellen Holly) and Ed Hall (Al Freeman Jr.).

[8] One Life to Live has been called "the most peculiarly American of soap operas: the first serial to present a vast array of ethnic types, broad comic situations, a constant emphasis on social issues, and strong male characters.

Nixon helmed the writing team for over a decade, until 1983,[10] and again introduced many social issues into storylines, including the Vietnam War, the anti-war movement, homosexuality, the AIDS epidemic, and American television's first onscreen abortion.

[14] In 1992, ABC executives decided that All My Children needed new blood and promoted a Nixon protégé, Megan McTavish, to the position of head writer.

Nixon continued to be involved with the show, but wanted to take a step back from the grueling day-to-day task of being a head writer.

[18] The half-hour program debuted on ABC in June of that year and was set in the fictional town of Corinth, Pennsylvania.

[19] Nixon's memoirs, published in 2017, was titled My Life to Live: How I Became the Queen of Soaps When Men ruled the Airwaves (ISBN 978-0-451-49823-6).