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Esther "Eppie" Pauline Friedman Lederer, better known as Ann Landers (July 4, 1918 – June 22, 2002), was best known for writing the famous syndicated advice column "Ann Landers." For some 45 years, it was a regular feature in many newspapers across North America. In it, people wrote the columnist for advice and she answered. Lederer's writing style was direct, but often witty and sometimes acerbic. She would regularly upbraid an errant letter-writer with the quip, "Watch it, bub!" Landers won a contest to take over the column in 1955, and wound up as owner of the copyright. She chose not to have a different writer continue the column after her death; it ultimately ceased publication when the few weeks' worth of material she had sent out before her death finally ran out. Landers was an identical twin: her sister, Pauline Esther Friedman Phillips, who was 17 minutes younger than Esther, wrote the Dear Abby column as Abigail Van Buren. As children, they grew up in Sioux City, Iowa, the daughters of Russian Jewish emigrants, and went by the nicknames "Eppie" and "Popo", respectively. They were very close and even had a joint wedding ceremony in 1939 at the age of 21. Esther was married to Jules Lederer, a business executive. Lederer's home for many years was Chicago, Illinois, where she owned a huge, well-furnished apartment. Lederer often said that she exercised regularly by walking the length of her apartment several times a day. In March 1940, she gave birth to her first and only child, Margo Lederer. Sadly, four years later in 1944, when Jules was drafted for the war and Landers and her daughter Margo were living with the Friedmans, Rebecca Friedman, Landers and Popo's mother, died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 56. Jules and Eppie's marriage ultimately ended in divorce. As competing columnists, the sisters did not have a happy relationship. The sisters publicly reconciled in 1964, although some suggest the acrimony lasted. * Just a few years before Lederer's death, they were not on speaking terms; it is said that they reconciled before her death, although that may be subject to question considering that Popo (Abby) was and is suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Daughter Margo Howard (who was formerly married to actor Ken Howard and kept her surname professionally) has three children of her own, whereas her cousin, Abigail Van Buren's daughter, Jeanne Phillips, is childless. Today, Howard writes an advice column of her own, Dear Margo, for Yahoo! News. A collection of correspondence between Lederer and Howard was published after her death. In good health almost all of her life, Eppie died of multiple myeloma in 2002 at the age of 83. She was survived by her daughter, her three grandchildren and her three greatgrandchildren (ex-husband Jules Lederer died on January 21, 1999). After her death, Dan Savage, author of the salacious sex column Savage Love and editor of The Stranger, bought her desk. The Ann Landers column has since been replaced by Annie's Mailbox, a similar feature written by Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar, the longtime editors of Lederer's old column.
Controversies Ann Landers wrote in a 1995 column, "In recent years, there have been reports of people with twisted minds putting razor blades and poison in taffy apples and Halloween candy. It is no longer safe to let your child eat treats that come from strangers." The vaguely-worded warning has drawn criticism for unnecessarily spreading fear, as there are no documented cases of children receiving poisoned candy during door-to-door trick-or-treating.* See also | ||||||||
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