Fallon
06-22-2002, 08:20 PM
CHICAGO (AP) - Ann Landers, the columnist whose snappy, plainspoken and timely advice helped millions of readers deal with everything from birth to death, died Saturday. She was 83.
The death of Landers, whose real name was Esther Lederer, was announced by the Chicago Tribune, publisher of her column. She died less than two weeks before her July 4 birthday.
Landers died of multiple myeloma at her Chicago apartment.
"There was absolutely no wall between Ann Landers and her readers. It went straight from her to them," Tribune syndicated columnist and author Bob Greene said Saturday. "I don't think there has ever been the kind of mutual trust and affection between writer and reader as there was with Eppie."
Landers' column first appeared in print Oct. 16, 1955, in the Chicago Sun-Times. In 1993, she was the world's most widely syndicated columnist, appearing in more than 1,200 newspapers worldwide with 90 million readers daily. Her twin sister, Pauline, followed her into the profession as writer of the Dear Abby column.
The feisty, outspoken Landers was a housewife when she won the Sun-Times contest to become the second Ann Landers after the woman who created the column died.
At the end of her career, she was a with-it great-grandmother whose name often appeared on lists of the country's most influential women.
"Eppie Lederer was a great columnist and a wonderful person, said John W. Madigan, chairman and CEO of Tribune Co. "She helped people with her advice, and made important contributions to society through the causes she supported."
Psychology Today once gave her credit for likely having more influence on the way people work out their problems than any other person of her era.
"All the column means to me is an opportunity to do good in the world," she said in a 1993 interview with that magazine.
She attributed her skill to sheer instinct.
"I relate to these people like they are almost sitting in the same room. I feel their pain," she once said.
Her advice was always blunt, often sympathetic and sometimes sarcastic. But her answers, even to some of the silliest questions, were heartfelt.
In her column published in Sunday's Tribune, Landers gave advice to "Depressed in New Jersey" and "Stu in Florida." And to "Desperate in Des Moines, Iowa," whose husband is keeping his earnings from her, she wrote: "Edgar will not allow you to have any of his income and is planning to sell the house? Something smells rotten to me.
"See a lawyer immediately, and find out how to protect yourself and your children if Edgar leaves you and takes all his assets with him."
When she began her column, newspaper editors forbade her from talking about homosexuality.
In later years, there were virtually no taboos: In an Oct. 24, 1993, column, for example, she endorsed masturbation or mutual masturbation as a safe, realistic alternative to abstinence for everyone from teens to the elderly.
In a letter published June 16, 1993, a man wrote of being sexually aroused by his girlfriend's young daughters. In a typically pithy response, Landers wrote: "The klinker in your thinker has a pedophile-like twist that could cause real trouble at any time. Please get counseling at once."
She was a great believer in counseling and wasn't too big-headed to seek advice from prominent experts when a reader's problem proved too complicated.
Her column had lighthearted moments, though. Few topics excited readers more than the question of which direction the toilet paper should be hung in.
"She was like America's mother, and I'm not alone in my sadness," Landers' daughter, Margo Howard, told the Tribune.
"She was about fixing the world. She really wanted to make things better. She really cared about the people," said Howard, whose column, "Dear Prudence," appears in the online magazine Slate.
In addition to Howard, Lederer is survived by her sister and competitor in the advice column business, Pauline Esther "PoPo" Phillips, also known as Abigail Van Buren, author of the Dear Abby column.
Landers made he
The death of Landers, whose real name was Esther Lederer, was announced by the Chicago Tribune, publisher of her column. She died less than two weeks before her July 4 birthday.
Landers died of multiple myeloma at her Chicago apartment.
"There was absolutely no wall between Ann Landers and her readers. It went straight from her to them," Tribune syndicated columnist and author Bob Greene said Saturday. "I don't think there has ever been the kind of mutual trust and affection between writer and reader as there was with Eppie."
Landers' column first appeared in print Oct. 16, 1955, in the Chicago Sun-Times. In 1993, she was the world's most widely syndicated columnist, appearing in more than 1,200 newspapers worldwide with 90 million readers daily. Her twin sister, Pauline, followed her into the profession as writer of the Dear Abby column.
The feisty, outspoken Landers was a housewife when she won the Sun-Times contest to become the second Ann Landers after the woman who created the column died.
At the end of her career, she was a with-it great-grandmother whose name often appeared on lists of the country's most influential women.
"Eppie Lederer was a great columnist and a wonderful person, said John W. Madigan, chairman and CEO of Tribune Co. "She helped people with her advice, and made important contributions to society through the causes she supported."
Psychology Today once gave her credit for likely having more influence on the way people work out their problems than any other person of her era.
"All the column means to me is an opportunity to do good in the world," she said in a 1993 interview with that magazine.
She attributed her skill to sheer instinct.
"I relate to these people like they are almost sitting in the same room. I feel their pain," she once said.
Her advice was always blunt, often sympathetic and sometimes sarcastic. But her answers, even to some of the silliest questions, were heartfelt.
In her column published in Sunday's Tribune, Landers gave advice to "Depressed in New Jersey" and "Stu in Florida." And to "Desperate in Des Moines, Iowa," whose husband is keeping his earnings from her, she wrote: "Edgar will not allow you to have any of his income and is planning to sell the house? Something smells rotten to me.
"See a lawyer immediately, and find out how to protect yourself and your children if Edgar leaves you and takes all his assets with him."
When she began her column, newspaper editors forbade her from talking about homosexuality.
In later years, there were virtually no taboos: In an Oct. 24, 1993, column, for example, she endorsed masturbation or mutual masturbation as a safe, realistic alternative to abstinence for everyone from teens to the elderly.
In a letter published June 16, 1993, a man wrote of being sexually aroused by his girlfriend's young daughters. In a typically pithy response, Landers wrote: "The klinker in your thinker has a pedophile-like twist that could cause real trouble at any time. Please get counseling at once."
She was a great believer in counseling and wasn't too big-headed to seek advice from prominent experts when a reader's problem proved too complicated.
Her column had lighthearted moments, though. Few topics excited readers more than the question of which direction the toilet paper should be hung in.
"She was like America's mother, and I'm not alone in my sadness," Landers' daughter, Margo Howard, told the Tribune.
"She was about fixing the world. She really wanted to make things better. She really cared about the people," said Howard, whose column, "Dear Prudence," appears in the online magazine Slate.
In addition to Howard, Lederer is survived by her sister and competitor in the advice column business, Pauline Esther "PoPo" Phillips, also known as Abigail Van Buren, author of the Dear Abby column.
Landers made he