As Ellie grew into womanhood, Southfork began to suffer financially. Around this time, Ellie befriended Willard "Digger" Barnes, whom she eventually developed a relationship with. Ellie cared a great deal for Digger, and they two were inseparable. Yet, the threat of foreclosure of Southfork loomed over the heads of the Southworth's.

Enter Jock Ewing, an associate of Digger's. Jock had always had a crush on Ellie, and slowly he began to let it be known to her. Ellie had to admit that she was attracted to him, and Digger was turning to alcohol more and more after a falling out with Jock. Jock swept Ellie off her feet, and the two were married. Some comment that it was coincidental that Ellie agreed to marry Jock, then very wealthy through oil, only days before Southfork was to be foreclosed on. Ellie swears that she loved him when she married him, and the fact that their marriage endured for the next few decades is a testament to this.

Unfortunately, Ellie's marriage to Jock strained her friendship with Digger, and he turned to alcohol more and more, as he withdrew from Ellie, who still cared for him. Still, Jock and Ellie's life endured. Ellie had three beautiful sons with Jock---J.R., Gary and Bobby. After her father died, Ellie inherited Southfork, which she put in both Jock and her own name. Southfork was thriving again, and Ellie was happy as mother and a community activist. Gary, as the middle child, was always a little bit more sensitive than J.R. and Bobby. He had a problem with alcohol, and at a young age married and impregnated Valene Clements, who gave birth to a daughter, Lucy. Gary could not take the strain of family life (or the overbearing Jock and J.R.) and left town. Valene left with baby Lucy soon after, but J.R. soon returned Lucy to Southfork, saying that Valene could not care for her properly (the exact nature of how J.R. got Lucy back has been kept from Ellie all these years, for fear of upsetting her, as Valene was threatened by J.R.)

Life continued in this fashion for many years. Jock eventually retired from Ewing Oil, and J.R. took over. It was then that Bobby brought home his new bride, Pamela Barnes, who was Digger's daughter. The hatred between Jock and Digger had transferred over to J.R. and Digger's son, Cliff, so Ellie felt that Pam's presence could only make a tender situation more difficult. Eventually though, she grew to love Pam as her own daughter, despite the difficulties that continued to exist between the Barnes and the Ewings.

Jock, in his retirement, began to spend lots of time with Julie Grey, a secretary at Ewing Oil. Ellie suspected them of having an affair, but it turned out to be solely a friendship. Soon after, tragedy struck. Ellie discovered a lump on her breast, and it was diagnosed as a malignant tumor. She had to undergo a mastectomy before the cancer spread to her body. Despite the support of her family, the mastectomy took its toll on Ellie, and she developed feelings of insecurity over her femininity and her relationship with Jock, despite his protests that nothing had changed between them. It was a long road, but Ellie eventually came to terms with her mastectomy.

When J.R. mortgaged Southfork to help finance some Asian Oil wells Ewing Oil was to purchase, Ellie's beloved home was almost foreclosed upon. To produce the funds to save Southfork, Ellie had to sell off some sections of the ranch for drilling in order to make a quick profit. Southfork was saved, but Ellie swore to herself that she would never give up another inch of her beloved home.

Things between Ellie and Jock got sour in the spring of 1981. It was then that Ray Krebbs was revealed as Jock's son from an affair that Jock had years ago, one that Ellie did not know about. This was difficult enough for Ellie to deal with, but Jock's constant time spent with Ray made Ellie feel resentful, in that it brought out her lingering resentment towards Jock for his role in Gary leaving Southfork. Further complicating matters were Ellie and Jock's dividing stance over the development of the Lake Takapa area: Jock was putting forth money to develop it, while Ellie was trying desperately to save it. All these issues built up to the point where Ellie and Jock almost divorced. The Takapa issue was resolved when Bobby (serving on a committee to decide the fate of the Takapa area) gave Jock alternate land to use. Ellie and Jock's love was too strong to let this break them up, and they worked out their difficulties and took an extended honeymoon in Paris.

Ellie returned to Southfork without Jock, who had been asked by the government to advise on a drilling venture in South America. Jock and Ellie regularly communicated by phone. Jock was down there for quite a while, and for large periods of time was unreachable, leading him to draw up a document dividing Ewing Oil into various voting shares to be controlled by the family while he was gone (He previously controlled all 100 voting shares, although J.R. actually ran the day to day operations). Ellie was given control of 30 voting shares, as well control of 10 shares for John Ross if he is not living on Southfork at the time of any voting. This was upsetting to Ellie, not only for the tensions that this caused for J.R. and Bobby, but because it signaled that Jock would be away for a long while. In the meantime, Ellie had other things to worry about: J.R. and Sue Ellen's divorce hearing, as well as J.R.'s actions to get Sue Ellen back to Southfork by ruining Farlow refineries (she was staying with the owner, Clayton Farlow, and his son, Dusty). Despite this, Ellie used her voting shares to keep J.R. as president of Ewing Oil since he was the only one qualified to run it, but placed Bobby at his side to "keep an eye on him." Then the world came crashing down.

Just as she was expecting Jock home, word came that his helicopter crashed in the South American jungle. Bobby, Ray and J.R. went to investigate and learned the truth: Jock was gone. Ellie was devastated and refused to believe it. She wouldn't declare him legally dead, and thus his will could not be read. She was inconsolable. Soon after, her step-daughter in law Donna talked to Miss Ellie about some disturbing information she had come upon while researching a new book: It seemed that Jock, years ago, had someone committed to a mental institution just to get their oil rich land. Miss Ellie refused to believe it, and told Donna that if she put that in the book, she'd sue. Eventually, as Miss Ellie came to deal with Jock's death she also came to accept that he made mistakes, and told Donna to publish the book.

Eventually, Ellie came to accept Jock's death, and had him declared legally dead. Soon, his will was read and its conditions called for Ewing Oil to be divided equally between Bobby and J.R. for a year, with each brother running Ewing Oil as a separate company. Whoever had the most profits at the end of the year would control the company. Thus began a bitter feud between the two brothers that would have its ramifications on the whole family. Ellie couldn't take the strain anymore and made motions to have Jock's will declared null by trying to prove him incompetent at the time of writing it, which was difficult in itself. Even more difficult was the fact that Bobby and J.R. fought her every step of the way. Ellie's plea was not heard though, and the will remained intact and the battle continued. Restless and confused, Ellie took a vacation to Galveston, where she was happy to run into Clayton Farlow.

Ellie and Clayton began spending a lot of time together, and eventually, slowly, an attraction formed. The two spent all their time together, and when Ellie's health began to fail thanks to the problems of her family, Clayton took her away for an extended vacation. In their absence, the problems at Southfork rose, including the house burning down and Ray being imprisoned for manslaughter. Clayton shielded all this from Ellie as to not hurt her, and the two grew closer. In her absence, the battle for Ewing Oil was settled, and Ellie ended up getting 10% control of the company. In fact, when Ellie returned to Southfork weeks later with Clayton, she informed the family that the two were engaged! This came as a shock, but a pleasant one, to everyone but J.R. Not liking Clayton at all, he set about to ruin his future stepfather, but was unsuccessful. When Clayton's sister Jessica came to town for the wedding, J.R. thought he had an ally in his ploy. Jessica turned out to be psychotic, though, and ended up kidnapping Ellie and trying to kill her out of a sick delusion that Ellie was going to replace Jessica as "mother figure" to Clayton's son Dusty. Bobby and Ray saved Ellie, and she ended up marrying Clayton.

After an extended honeymoon, Ellie and Clayton returned to Southfork, where Clayton had some problems adjusting. Ellie made it very clear that the only place she would live was Southfork, so Clayton began to feel as though he was in Jock's shadow a bit. This caused strains for the newlyweds, but eventually Ellie convinced Clayton that while she would always love Jock, it was different than the strong love she had for him. Clayton and Ellie were happy for a while, trying to deal with the constant commotion and difficulties that were inherent with life at Southfork. In the fall of 1986, a mysterious man named Wes Parmalee showed up at Southfork, and was hired by Ray as a rancher. Miss Ellie got a strange aura from Wes, almost as if she knew him, and he seemed to know her. He was always looking at her intently. Curious, Miss Ellie went to visit him in his quarter's one day, but he wasn't there. Walking in to see if he was in the other room, Ellie saw an old photograph of her, as well as several letters she had written Jock and Jock's belt buckle. Horrified, Wes walked in just as she discovered these, and she demanded to know where they were from. Wes claimed that they were his---and that he was Jock. He soon made this revelation to the family, saying that he survived the plane crash, and had to reconstruct his face (this explaining his new appearance). Ellie was disbelieving at first, but soon started to become very confused. Wes was so much like Jock, and he knew things that only Jock knew; intimate moments between them, family secrets, etc. Ellie became more and more convinced that Wes was Jock as Clayton grew more and more jealous. One night, Ellie even kissed Wes in confusion. Clayton was determined to prove him a liar though, and eventually it came out that Wes was not Jock, but rather was in South America with Jock around the time of the latter's death. Stricken with a horrible malaria-type disease, Jock thought he was going to die and just talked and talked to Wes about his family, telling him every detail of his life. Wes memorized this all, and hoped to find a family in the Ewings, but was unsuccessful. That behind them, Ellie and Clayton were faced with the new problem of Clayton's health. Having suffered a heart attack before, Clayton's doctors were warning him to stop strenuous activity, but Clayton was not listening. Eventually, he suffered another heart attack but recovered.

Soon after, Ellie immersed herself in the activities of the Daughters of the Alamo, leaving her with little free time. Clayton began to get bored and restless, having retired, and befriended a young artist named Laurel Ellis. Ellie grew curious about Clayton's time spent away from home, and eventually, thanks to a greedy friend of Laurel's, began to suspect that Laurel and Clayton were having an affair. Angry and hurt, she kicked Clayton out. Soon after, Clayton was implicated in the murder of the greedy friend, David Shulton. Ellie was his support through this, and bailed him out of jail. The two reconciled, as Clayton revealed that his relationship with Laurel was pure friendship. Laurel told Ellie the same thing separately. To show her renewed commitment to Clayton, Ellie signed over half of Southfork to him, irking J.R.

A ranch war almost erupted at Southfork when a mysterious man named Carter McKay bought the land adjoining Southfork from Ray Krebbs. Carter started to instigate conflicts with the Ewings, such as damming the river water that fed the cattle raised on Southfork, which could ruin their ranching business. Tensions escalated, as Carter's "men" purposefully caused stampedes among the cattle and ruined boundaries on Southfork, causing the cattle to roam. Carter made it clear that he was not going to stop these conflicts, as he was remaining in the bounds of the law, unless he was sold Southfork's oil rich "Section 40" by Miss Ellie. As strains grew worse and worse, and Christopher was almost injured in a conflict, Ellie agreed to sell it for the sake of her family. It was soon revealed that Jeremy Wendell, Ewing enemy and President of Weststar Oil, had hired Carter and was behind the conflict. He confessed to the Ewings and Carter as Ellie was about to sign over Section 40, all the illegal things he had done in an attempt to get the Ewings off the land. Right after, the police came in and arrested Jeremy---Carter and the Ewings had teamed up to throw him in jail. Carter revealed that he had to work for Jeremy in order for the latter to use his influence to get his son Tommy out of a South American jail. Carter eventually assumed the mantle of the head of Weststar.

With the range war behind them, Ellie and Clayton settled into quiet life again, but soon enough another tragedy occurred. Clayton was thrown off a horse while riding and developed amnesia. Eventually, after weeks, his memory came back and all was well.

Shortly afterwards, Ellie received a mysterious letter in the mail that was addressed to Jock Ewing. It contained only a key and was signed from a mysterious "Mallory." After a very convoluted trail, Ellie and Clayton traced the key to Pride, Texas, where Jock used to wildcat. There, they discovered a map that lead to a particular part of Montana, where they found another family with the name "Ewing." Apparently, this family was escapees from Nazi controlled Europe in World War II, and Jock had been key in their escape, so they named themselves Ewing in honor of him. Returning to Southfork, Clayton and Ellie found themselves in another mystery when Clayton's friend Atticus Ward died. Clayton was named as one of many heirs. One by one, these heirs started to die, and Clayton appeared to be next. It was eventually revealed that Clayton's sister, Jessica (escaped from the mental hospital), was behind the killings. She had cooked up a scheme with Atticus (who was not really dead when his will was first read, but was later killed by Jessica) that involved her killing all those he hated (strangely enough, those in his will) in exchange for Atticus putting Dusty is his will as the sole person that inherited the 25% of Weststar Stock (the main benefit of the will)! For it was soon revealed that Atticus was Dusty's father!

Jessica was caught, and placed back in the mental hospital. After Bobby and April's wedding, Ellie and Clayton decided to take an extended trip around the world. They ended up being gone for much longer than expected, and eventually on the trip, Ellie and Clayton decided to move to Europe (Ellie was sick of the fighting that was occurring at Southfork constantly). The two decided to sign over control of Southfork to Bobby, and moved to Europe.

The following occurred in Return to Southfork

Life in Europe was pleasant for a while, but eventually Ellie's health began to fail terribly. She had fallen into a deep depression as well, just as Clayton was befriending a young woman, who was, unbeknownst to them, Lucy's old friend Muriel. Miss Ellie, bed-ridden, depressed and unable to perform physically for Clayton, suggested the two sleep together, in a strange effort to make Clayton happy. Although he didn't want to, Clayton did so, believing this would make Ellie happy. Soon after, Ellie's health improved, and after a while they returned to Southfork for frequent visits. It was during one of those visits that Lucy, having just been told by Muriel that she had slept with Clayton, confronted Clayton over what he had done. Miss Ellie explained to Lucy that situation in Europe. What Lucy did not tell her grandmother or Clayton was that Muriel had AIDS, and therefore they could both have it. Clayton eventually found out the risk when Muriel herself told him, before dying. Clayton and Ellie debated about being tested, but soon after received a misdirected letter from Muriel that revealed that she contracted AIDS after she slept with Clayton. Clayton and Ellie decided to move back to Southfork permanently.

Trouble continued, though, when Southfork exploded thanks to the machinations of Pam's crazed sister Katherine. Ellie survived, but was upset by the destruction of her house. Southfork was rebuilt, and Ellie planned a huge Ewing Barbecue to celebrate its reconstruction. What she didn't know was that Jessica had escaped the mental hospital and was planning on killing Ellie there. She tried to poison Ellie's wine, but the plan was foiled. Jessica continued to plot, and eventually snuck onto the cruise ship where the Oil Baron's Ball was being held. There, Jessica tried to poison Ellie's food again, but the plate was knocked over before it reached Ellie. Crazed, Jessica tried to shoot her but was captured and recommitted.

Life has settled down for Ellie as much as it ever can, living at Southfork. But she is happy with Clayton, and realizes that Southfork is the place where she belongs most---with her family.