Eddie Yeats

Eddie Yeats (pronounced Yates) was the Ogdens' lodger from 1980 to 1983. He had a reputation for being something of a swindler after serving time in prison for thieving, but stayed on the right side of the law during his time in the street.

Convictions
Scouser Edward Yeats was born on 22nd August 1941 in Liverpool. In adulthood, Eddie held a few low-paid jobs and made extra cash by helping out his disreputable friends on burglaries or by selling stolen goods. In 1973, Eddie was caught by police and sent to Walton Jail, sentenced to 18 months imprisonment. His cellmate there was Jed Stone.

When he was paroled, Eddie turned up on the doorstep of Jed's former landlord Minnie Caldwell in Coronation Street, hoping she would give him a room before he had to go back to Walton. His friend Nobby Harris asked for his help to rob a supermarket, but Eddie wanted to stay clean and preferred to pursue barmaid Bet Lynch. During a date the police showed up to escort him back to prison. Eddie had told Bet he was on leave from the army, and she went off him.

After serving his time, Eddie returned to the street and ingratiated himself with the neighbours, hoping someone would let him stay with them. He tried to fix a date with Bet again, but settled for friendship when he stopped her from taking an aspirin overdose when she found out the son she never knew was dead.

Things were on the up for Eddie as he went into partnership with Stan Ogden in the window cleaning business and was allowed to lodge with Minnie at Number 5 and later builder Len Fairclough at Number 9, but in September 1975 he hid a suitcase containing the spoils of his friend Monkey Gibbons' burglary in Minnie's house, where it was found by the police. Eddie turned himself in and he was charged with dishonest handling, which meant another year in jail.

Return to the Street
Eddie returned to Coronation Street again when he was released from Walton in 1976. No one was happy to see him back, but he found lodgings at Number 13 when he got special wallpaper for Hilda Ogden's mural and helped her decorate. Eddie made good by building a playground at the back of the Community Centre for the kids, helping out Ken Barlow. He was treated with mistrust by the childrens' parents because of his history, and forcibly removed from the project despite Ken sticking up for him.

Eddie turned over a new leaf after his release from prison. After a brief stay with the Ogdens he lived at his friends' house and became the street's resident scoundrel; always law abiding but never shaking off the aura of being an off-duty criminal. For the Ogdens, he was the son they never had. In 1977, he started a short-lived curtain-making business with Hilda, cut short when Mike Baldwin wouldn't let Hilda use his factory. He regularly tried to sell things to the neighbours, insisting nothing was stolen or faulty, but more often than not there was a problem of some sort. For example, he sold Rovers Return landlady Annie Walker a carpet with her initials on it... it was so because it came from the Alhambra Weatherfield Bingo Hall. His promise to get a colour televison for the Ogdens was even less successful - he only got them a colour tinted screen. Despite his unreliability, his heart was always in the right place.

In 1978, trouble brewed for Eddie when he was suspected by the police of stealing Stan's handcart filling it with lead stolen from Farraday Street, even though it was actually lent to Eddie's friend Tiny Hargreaves. The cart was impounded by the police when Hilda saw Tiny and took it back, and Eddie and Stan claimed it was stolen. However, the police found Eddie's fingerprints on the cart and Stan put his alibi to bed by claiming not to know him. Eddie forgave Stan when he told the police the truth, but to clear themselves they had to admit who the real culprit was, as much as Eddie hated putting his friends in trouble.

Struggling to make ends meet, Eddie started working for Len in 1979, mainly fixing roofs. In April, he took possession of 6 hens, and made a coop for them in Number 13's garden. He even convinced Hilda to keep them by promising they would bring the Ogdens money. However, when the Ogdens were a laughing stock because of the hens, Hilda made Eddie roast them for food.

Eddie found himself facing prison again when he entertained his old friend Herbie Cook at Betty Turpin's house, where Eddie was insulating Betty's loft. When Herbie stole a clock, suspicion fell on Eddie, who had a key to Betty's house because of the job he'd been given. Herbie wouldn't admit to having taken the clock, but Eddie convinced Betty not to tell the police.

Settling down
In 1980, now nearing 40, Eddie was keen to settle down and marry, first dating Lorna Ferguson then Pat Marshall. Life wasn't easy for Eddie - he lost his job at the builder's yard when Len took on Martin Cheveski then sacked Eddie as there wasn't enough work for everybody. He thought about starting his own business, but the neighbours scoffed at the idea, so eventually took a job as a binman. The Ogdens let him live at Number 13 again after hearing he was making a decent wage on the bins.

On one shift, Eddie picked up a half-full can of hair dye from the Rovers' bins, belonging to landlady Annie Walker, and returned it to Annie, thinking she might not have realised she had discarded it. Annie was angry and embarrassed and forbade Eddie to touch her bins again, going as far as to ask the cleansing department for new bin men. A rebuffed Eddie told Annie that his men were boycotting the Rovers, which didn't make Eddie any friends as the smell permeated his regular haunt. The situation wasn't resolved until Annie apologized to him.

1982 started well for Eddie when he met Marion Willis after chatting with her on CB radio, calling himself "Slim Jim". To impress "Stardust Lil", Eddie told her over the radio that he was a businessman, not expecting to meet her, so when the situation came, he borrowed the key to Mike Baldwin's flat from Hilda, who worked for Mike as a housekeeper, and told Marion the flat was his. Hilda found out before Mike did, but Eddie, who didn't know how to tell Marion the truth, had copied the keys and started meeting Marion there regularly. Mike cottoned on when he found post and phone messages for Eddie, but surprisingly he let Eddie meet Marion there one last time to tell her the truth. To Eddie's relief, the truth made Marion keener on him, as she had been having doubts that they were right for each other given his supposed wealth.

When he realised he was in love, Eddie told Marion about being in prison, and when she was fine with it he suggested they get married. They got engaged but Marion wanted to wait a while before marrying. After a few months, Marion's ex-boyfriend Phil Moss turned up to try and win her back. Thinking he might not be good enough for Marion, and feeling massively jealous, Eddie told her the engagement was off. Marion left but returned to tell Eddie that she didn't love Phil anymore and wanted him. After getting back together with Marion, Eddie started thinking about raising capital to buy a house for them and invested £1000 in Elsie Tanner's boyfriend Geoff Siddall's car business. When it turned out Eddie had been conned and Geoff had fled with his money, Marion left Eddie and told him to stay away from her. Eddie didn't take the incident well and disappeared, eventually turning up in his native Liverpool. When Marion followed Eddie there, they got back together again, and the engagement was back on.

In 1983, the couple were thrilled by the news that Marion was pregnant, and brought forward the date of the wedding. Eddie wasn't happy with having Marion's mother, Winifred Willis, as a mother-in-law, as she constantly complained about Eddie and wanted Marion to live in Bury with her. At his stag night, Eddie got a black eye when he tried to stop Fred Gee from announcing Marion's pregnancy to the entire puc. Fellow binman Curly Watts was Eddie's best man and Hilda stood in for his mother as he married Marion at All Saint's church. After the wedding, Winifred decided that she liked Eddie after all!

Departure
The Yeats' returned from their honeymoon to the news that Winifred had had a stroke and was seriously ill. Eddie was thinking about buying a new house, but Marion persuaded him to move to Bury so that she could give her mother full-time care. Eddie got a transfer on the bins and the couple left Weatherfield to start a new life in Bury, with Eddie telling the Ogdens that they had been like parents to him.

The following year, Eddie's daughter Dawn Yeats was born, and Eddie phoned Hilda to ask her to tell everybody at the Rovers.

In 1987, Eddie returned to Coronation Street to see Hilda. This was his final visit to the Street.