“Dear Abby” Dead At 94

“Abigail Van Buren,” actually Pauline Friedman Philips, has died at 94 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Phillips’ column competed for decades with the advice column of Ann Landers, written by her twin sister, Esther Friedman Lederer. Their relationship was stormy in their early adult years, but later they regained the close relationship they had growing up in Sioux City, Iowa…

Searching for a name for the column, Pauline chose Abigail from the Bible and Van Buren from the eighth American president…

The woman known to the world as Ann Landers died in June 2002. Later that year, the family revealed that Phillips had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. By then Phillips’ daughter, Jeanne Phillips, who had helped her mother with the Dear Abby column for years, was its sole author.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.