Eppie Lederer


Publicity photo in 1961

Born: Esther Pauline Friedman; July 4, 1918; Sioux City, Iowa, U.S.
Died: June 22, 2002 (aged 83); Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Other names: Ann Landers
Alma mater: Morningside College
Relatives: Pauline Phillips (twin sister)

Esther Pauline "Eppie" Lederer (née Friedman; July 4, 1918 – June 22, 2002), better known by the pen name Ann Landers, was an American advice columnist and eventually a nationwide media celebrity. She began writing the "Ask Ann Landers" column in 1955 and continued for 47 years, by which time its readership was 90 million people. A 1978 World Almanac survey named her the most influential woman in the United States.[1] She was the identical twin sister of Pauline Phillips, who wrote the similarly popular "Dear Abby" advice column as Abigail Van Buren.

Lederer was a profile-raiser for several medical charities, and in 1977 President Jimmy Carter appointed her to a six-year term on a cancer advisory board.

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Pauline Phillips


Publicity photo, 1961
Born: Pauline Esther Friedman; July 4, 1918; Sioux City, Iowa, U.S.
Died: January 16, 2013 (aged 94); Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Pen name: Abigail Van Buren {"Dear Abby"}
Alma mater: Morningside College
Relatives:
Esther Pauline "Eppie" Lederer (twin sister)
Dean Phillips (grandson)
Website: dearabby.com

Pauline Esther Phillips (born Friedman; July 4, 1918 – January 16, 2013), also known as Abigail Van Buren, was an American advice columnist and radio show host who began the well-known "Dear Abby" newspaper column in 1956. It became the most widely syndicated newspaper column in the world, syndicated in 1,400 newspapers with 110 million readers.

From 1963 to 1975, Phillips also hosted a daily Dear Abby program on CBS Radio. TV anchorwoman Diane Sawyer calls her the "pioneering queen of salty advice". She was also the paternal stepgrandmother of U.S. Congressman Dean Phillips.

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Personal life and beliefs

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Phillips supported gay rights, and season 1, episode 8 of the podcast Making Gay History is about her.

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Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive
Season 1: Episode 8: Dear Abby

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One of the columns Phillips references in her Making Gay History interview concerns people who were upset about new neighbors, a column that she said gay people loved. Here’s a facsimile of the actual May 3, 1972, letter reproduced in its entirety along with Phillips’s three-word response (just in case you have a hard time reading the facsimile, we’ve provided a typed version as well).


© 2016 Newspapers.com.

DEAR ABBY: About four months ago, the house across the street was sold to a “father and son” — or so we thought. We later learned it was an older man about 50 and a young fellow about 24.

This was a respectable neighborhood before this “odd couple” moved in. They have all sorts of strange-looking company. Men who look like women, women who look like men, blacks, whites, Indians. Yesterday I even saw two nuns go in there!

They must be running some sort of business, or a club. There are motorcycles, expensive sports cars and even bicycles parked in front and on the lawn. They keep their shades drawn so you can’t see what’s going on inside but they must be up to no good, or why the secrecy?

We called the police department and they asked if we wanted to press charges! They said unless the neighbors were breaking some law there was nothing they could do.

Abby, these weirdos are wrecking our property values! How can we improve the quality of this once-respectable neighborhood? — UP IN ARMS

DEAR UP: You could move.