Fresh Upp was the daughter of the wealthy socialite Burpie Upp, and the mother of Little Boy Beard. She was a slender woman with dark hair that she wore short.
Sad Beginnings[]
Fresh's husband Johnny Plenty was killed in a car accident after returning home from military service.
Soon after Johnny's death, Burpie forced Fresh to abandon Little Boy Beard in a park due to the baby's freakish appearance. Fresh was distraught at having to abandon her child but felt powerless against her controlling mother.
However, the fugitive criminals Spots and Providence J. Ogden saw Fresh abandoning the child and tracked her to her family's apartment later, planning to blackmail them. At this point, Fresh seemed to become mentally unhinged, as she began talking to a photograph of her deceased husband and coddling a pillow as if it was her baby. Fresh retrieved her late husband's gun and threatened to kill the blackmailers and her mother. Ogden surprised Fresh and during the ensuing scuffle she and Burpie were subdued and tied up to chairs.
Burpie eventually freed herself and Fresh from the ropes, but Fresh was determined to reclaim her child and get away from her controlling mother. Fresh tried to escape her mother by running across building rooftops but Burpie chased her down and confronted on the top of a tall building. Fresh saw her chance to be free of Burpie and kicked her mother off the roof to her death.
Upon returning to her apartment, Fresh was approached by the police. She initially claimed that her mother had fallen, but when she was presented with evidence that contradicted her statement, she confessed to pushing Burpie. She was held on a charge of manslaughter.
After Burpie[]
Dick Tracy (who had been investigating Spots for unrelated crimes) soon deduced that Fresh's late husband was a cousin of B.O. Plenty. B.O. and his family were granted temporary custody of Little Boy Beard while Fresh was awaiting trial, and they brought the child to see his mother in jail on Christmas Day, 1960. A week later, Fresh was informed that the manslaughter charge was being dropped, and she was a free woman.
An advertising company had seen photos of Little Boy Beard and offered Fresh a significant sum of money to use the boy in an ad campaign for breakfast cereal. She agreed and took up residence in a fashionable hotel room with her son.
Aunt Soso[]
Fresh was contacted by her mother's twin sister, Soso, who had been living in Europe. Soso came to Dick Tracy's city and checked into the same hotel. Unbeknownst to Fresh, Soso also had ill will towards the baby, and planned to kill both Fresh and Little Boy Beard.
Soso rented a room in Fresh's hotel and managed to sneak a cigarette lighter into Little Boy Beard' crib, intending that the child should start a fire that would hopefully kill himself and Fresh. The fire was doused by Dick Tracy, though it temporarily burned off the boy's beard, resulting in a the loss of his advertising contract.
Aunt Soso then came to visit Fresh, claiming to have just arrived from Europe. Soso invited Fresh and her son to stay with her at her mansion in Eagle Point. Soso summoned her chauffeur Tarter Soss and they set out in a heavy snowstorm.
Stranded[]
Soso had planned with Soss to drive the car out onto a frozen lake, where Soso and Soss departed the vehicle. They left Fresh and her son in Soso's car, which they set floating on a large ice cake. It was intended that Fresh and Little Boy Beard would either freeze or drown.
Fresh kept the car running until the gasoline ran out and the battery died. She wrapped herself and her son in the car's carpet to stay warm. They were eventually rescued by Dick Tracy in a helicopter, suffering only minor ill-effects from the cold. Aunt Soso was arrested and confessed to the murder attempt.
A New Job[]
Fresh expressed her desire to find a regular job. Tracy was contacted by former Mayor "Happy" Voten who hired Fresh to be his secretary at his dog kennel. Voten insisted that Fresh bring Little Boy Beard to work with her, and Fresh was happy for a time.
Despite her hopes, danger continued to plague Fresh and her son, as a group of thieves were using Voten's kennel as a base of operations to train dogs to steal. Little Boy Beard was briefly involved in the scheme, and was later trapped in a pen with two hungry panthers. Fresh was panicked by her son's peril, but the child was rescued with no injuries, and Fresh resolved never to let him out of her sight again.
Notes[]
- Having been married to Johnny Plenty, Fresh would considered an in-law to rest of the extended Plenty family.
- Fresh was freed from the manslaughter charge when the Grand Jury voted a No Bill. Tracy told her that this came after the Grand Jury heard witnesses' testimony. As Fresh and Burpie had been alone on the rooftop when Burpie was pushed, it is possible this testimony came from Ogden (and possibly Burpie's former friends in high society) and related Fresh's distraught emotional state and Burpie's controlling nature.