Pearl was a friend of Katherine Pierce in 1864 and a long time before that. (Pearl's birthday is unknown but clues within the show about when she was turned and her mid 30's appearance places her birth at about the 1430's). Her daughter, Anna, is also a vampire, and they were extremely close. She was in love with Johnathan Gilbert a mortal male, but he discovered that she was a vampire and betrayed her. She spent nearly a century and a half entrapped in the Fell's Church tomb.

After being freed by her daughter and others from the tomb in the 21st century, a few weeks later, on her last night in Mystic Falls in the year 2010, she was in the process of leaving, but then she got staked by John Gilbert. While she appeared to be the main antagonist of episodes 15-20, wanting to reclaim the town for the tomb vampires, Anna later stated that her mother wasn't after revenge but only wanted her life back.