Created by writer David Jacobs, family matriarch Miss Ellie was an important part of the show's structure and conflict and a principal character of the series.

Halfway through the show's 13-year run, only days after filming wrapped for the 1982–1983 season, Bel Geddes underwent emergency quadruple bypass surgery.

Born in 1915, Miss Ellie Ewing is the daughter of rancher Aaron Southworth, who instills in her a fierce pride in her heritage, deep-seated courage, and a strong belief in the strength of family.

When the Great Depression hit, Miss Ellie's family came dangerously close to losing Southfork Ranch, and Miss Ellie began dating Digger's business partner and friend, Jock Ewing, who had just begun making his fortune in the oil business and building Ewing Oil.

On the day that her family was going to lose Southfork, Miss Ellie married Jock, as he was the only man in Texas known to have enough money to save the ranch.

The following year, she learns that ranch foreman Ray Krebbs is Jock's illegitimate son from an affair with an Army nurse named Margaret Hunter in England during World War II.

In 1983, Miss Ellie goes to court to overturn the terms of Jock's will, which set up a fierce and bitter competition between J.R. and Bobby for control of Ewing Oil.

Before Jock's death, Sue Ellen leaves J.R., taking John Ross to live at the Southern Cross Ranch near San Angelo, Texas, the home of her new boyfriend, rodeo cowboy Dusty Farlow.

In an attempt to steal back John Ross, J.R. takes Miss Ellie on a visit, where she first meets Dusty's father Clayton.

In 1986, a man named Wes Parmalee claims that he is in fact her presumed late husband, Jock, who had actually survived the helicopter crash but underwent extensive plastic surgery which drastically altered his appearance.