This character never made it to air. Jessica and Chester's eldest child was actually a son named David. David Tate had gone MIA five years before the action on Soap began. In Vietnam, David had been having an affair with an Asian girl named Noyen Nu. He went missing without knowing she was pregnant. She gave birth to his son Joey Nu Tate. Noyen and Joey were to have gone to Dunn's River to find the Tates. Eventually David would have made it back alive too. It would've turned out that Noyen's father was an opium baron. Meanwhile, Burt had a middle son named Michael who was a smuggler. He was to have kidnapped Joey Nu Tate and held him ransom in exchange for drugs from Noyen's father. David would've searched for them similar to Jody searching for Wendy after she was kidnapped by Carol.
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printed in the Los Angeles Times on June 27, 1977. A production memo was printed stating. "The CIA or any other government organization is not to be involved in General Nu's smuggling operation." (This character and storyline, which dealt with a Vietnamese opium smuggler who becomes involved in the Tate family through Jessica's long-lost son, was eventually removed from the show bible.)

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SkipEastport: "Jessica and Chester had an older son named David who vanished in Vietnam. He was mentioned in Susan Harris' bible for the show and would've turned up later in the series if it hadn't been cancelled before the planned fifth season."
That too sounds familiar, but again, wherever I heard it, it's been almost forty years.
I was going to point out on an episode of Mama's Family, Thelma Harper (Vicki Lawrence) said something about raising four kids. Of course, all we ever saw were Eunice, Ellen and Vinton.
On The Carol Burnett Show, Alan Alda and Tommy Smothers portrayed one-shot brothers, as well as Roddy McDowell's appearances as PHillip, no other sibling was ever shown to my knowledge.

Jessica and Chester had an older son named David who vanished in Vietnam. He was mentioned in Susan Harris' bible for the show and would've turned up later in the series if it hadn't been cancelled before the planned fifth season.

Well husband Chester had 4 children

It's possible she was referring to Dutch. He wasn't her child of course, but he was living there and she loved him as though he was one of her own.

By coincidence I have just read on Soap Wikipedia entry that a storyline that Jessica had a long lost son was wrote for the show but was cancelled. So it is possible that she mentioned 4 children as they prepared for a new story.

Well Happy Days and Family Matters both introduced a sibling that later disappeared without any explanation. Why not mention a character that is never shown?
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Perhaps she was adding in hew husband in the group. not as an actual child but a comment that he acts like a child?

Thanks for narrowing it down. I have all 4 seasons in MP4 form so I was able to find it once I had some sort of reference point.
It's in Season 03 Episode 16. Corrine is in the kitchen making lunch for her baby when Jessica walks in and they chat. Corrine complains that it's difficult dating with a kid and Jessica says she knows because she has "4", Corrine then tells her that it's different because Jessica's children are all grown. Billy then enters to say how sick of Leslie he has become.
It could have been a slip of the tongue, a plot twist they never visited, or her father that was like a child but certainly then not in the "all grown up" category.

I just saw an ep. where she said that. It was during season 3. Corrine was complaining about it being hard to have a social life(i.e. get laid)when you have a baby. Jessica said "I know I have four of them."
I think it might have been the ep where Eunice left.

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I think they would have done something with a fourth child if they had not cancelled it. I hated the cancellation. The way it ended was stupid. If they wanted to cancel it, they should have let them wrap it up better.

Well that's good news. I was worried there for a moment. LOL

I've just been watching season 3, and in episode 16 Jessica and Corinne are drinking coffee in the Tate kitchen. Corinne said how difficult it is to date with a child - that men seem to run the other way. Jessica then replies 'Tell me about it - I've had 4', and Corinne then says, 'but, Ma - all of your children are grown up now.'
Eunice and Billy are both hers, and Corinne was adopted, meaning there is still one unaccounted for. I've read the producers had a 5-season plot line in mind, so perhaps we would have seen her 4th child in S5 if the show has survived beyond S4.
The main thing, of course, is that you're not crazy.

Mary had two children, Danny and Jody, and Burt had two children, Peter and Chuck. Peter died after Chester knocked a flower pot on his head.
Jessica had three children, Billy and Eunice who are her children with Chester, and Corrine who is later revealed to be Jessica and Chester's neice.

Peter and Chuck are Mary's estranged stepkids whom she didn't meet until years later; I doubt they would technically count as "hers."

Chuck (and Bob) and Peter were her step-children.
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Mary started out the series with two kids. Chuck and Peter were Burt's kids from before he met Mary.

It was either Chester, Benson, Dutch or Tim

It'll be coming up in a few weeks on Antenna TV (last night was the first ep again) I'm curious why that would come up, YEP Jess definitely only had the 3 children.

You sure it wasn't Mary that said 4 children? She had Chuck, Danny, Jodie, and Peter. Maybe the writers confused the sisters. Easy to do in only the 4th episode. Jessica definitely did not have 4 children.

I am re-watching that episode now. It may have been from a different season than 1. I can't remember now.