Dear Abby

From Freepedia

Pauline Esther Phillips (born July 4, 1918 Pauline Esther Friedman) founded Dear Abby in 1956. The current Dear Abby is her only daughter, Jeanne Phillips, who now writes under the pen name of Abigail Van Buren. She also has a son, Edward Jay Phillips.

Pauline Phillips was an identical twin; her sister, Esther Lederer, wrote the Ann Landers column until her death from multiple myeloma in 2002. As children, the two grew up in Sioux City, Iowa, and went by the nicknames "Popo" and "Eppie", respectively. They were so close then that they even had a joint wedding in 1939 when both women were 21 years old. As competing columnists, the sisters occasionally clashed; in 1956, Phillips offered her column to the Sioux City Journal at a reduced price provided the paper refused Lederer's column; Life Magazine reported on the offer in 1958. The sisters publicly reconciled in 1964, although some suggest the acrimony lasted. [1] Phillips has suffered from Alzheimer's disease for a number of years, but according to her husband, Morton Phillips and her daughter, she did reconcile with her now-deceased sister before Lederer's death from multiple myeloma in 2002 at age 83.

Phillips, who resided in Beverly Hills, California, wrote in a straightforward style that contrasted with Lederer's quips and barbs. By 1985, when Phillips suffered from the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, her daughter Jeanne assumed all the writing responsibilities of Dear Abby. After the Phillips family publicly announced that Pauline had Alzheimer’s, Jeanne assumed the pen name of Abigail Van Buren.