April Ramírez is the oldest child of Rosa Ramírez and Monty Dolan. April's mother Rosa was dying of cancer and April and her brother Emilio were stealing drugs from Kayla's clinic for their mother.

April worked as a candy stripper at the hospital which is where she met and fell in love with Dr. Mike Horton. When Rosa was in a car accident she was taken to the hospital and was in critical condition. Rosa had made April promise not to let her stay alive by life support, and when she was admitted to the hospital and ended up on life support the plug was pulled on her and she died and April claimed she was the one who did it. April came before the hospital board and was removed from her position as a nurse, and it put a strain on her relationship with Mike. Mike refused to believe April was the one who turned off her mothers life support and wouldn't back off Eventually April told Mike she saw her father in the hospital stairwell moments after her mother was pronounced dead and knew he turned the life support off. April was re-instated and because of his age and poor health Monty wasn't prosecuted.

The stress of the situation caused April to begin drinking heavily, and with Mike's help April accepted the fact that she was an alcoholic and got treatment. In 1989 Mike Horton proposed to April, who accepted. However Mike's old flame Robin Jacobs returned along with her and Mike's infant son Jeremy. April decided that Mike would be better of with Robin and his son so she broke off their engagement and married Nick Corelli instead. Nick married April in hopes that Eve would fall in love with someone better.

Nick, who had recently bought Blondies and turned it into Wings, gave April a job managing the club. Even though the marriage was only one of convenience Nick fell in love with April. Nick became seriously ill and he needed to have an operation. After the operation Nick realized April still loved Mike, so he granted her an annulment so she could be with him. April went away with Mike, and when they returned they were engaged to be married. In 1990, Mike went to Israel to care for the sick and the wounded who were casualties of an ongoing war. When Mike failed to return home, April knew it was over. April soon found herself in a battle between two brothers. Both Nick and Johnny Corelli fought for April's heart, but Johnny eventually won and Nick was murdered.

April became involved with Johnny, but Johnny's dirty dealings were too much for her to handle. In 1990 April was suspected of killing Nick when her fingerprints were found on the murder weapon, but April was cleared when Jo Johnson confessed to killing Nick. April left Salem for New York to join her brother Julio.