"Dear Abby" passes away at 94

[JamesSavik]

Dear Abby, ‘always compassionate toward gay people,’ dies at 94

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2013/01/dear-abby-always-compassionate-toward-gay-people-dies-at-94/

 

 

Staff- LGBT Nation

 

MINNEAPOLIS — Pauline Friedman Phillips, who as Dear Abby dispensed snappy, sometimes saucy advice on love, marriage and meddling mothers-in-law to millions of newspaper readers around the world and opened the way for the likes of Dr. Ruth, Dr. Phil and Oprah, has died. She was 94.

Phillips died Wednesday in Minneapolis after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease, said Gene Willis, a publicist for the Universal Uclick syndicate.

Phillips willingly expressed views that she realized would bring protests.

In a 1998 interview she remarked: “Whenever I say a kind word about gays, I hear from people, and some of them are damn mad. People throw Leviticus, Deuteronomy and other parts of the Bible to me. It doesn’t bother me. I’ve always been compassionate toward gay people.”

Indeed, Phillips once responded to a reader who complained that a gay couple was moving in across the street and wanted to know what he could do to improve the quality of the neighborhood.”

“You could move,” was her simple, to the point response.

In another “Dear Abby” column, Phillips once wrote, “Sexual orientation is not a measure of anyone’s humanity or worth. Thank you for pointing out how important it is that people respect each other for who they are, not for what we would like them to be.”

“There wasn’t a subject my mother wouldn’t take on.” said her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, who now writes the famous syndicated column.

Aside from the Dear Abby column, which appeared in 1,000 newspapers as far off as Brazil and Thailand, Phillips conducted a radio version of “Dear Abby” from 1963 to 1975 and wrote best-selling books about her life and advice.

“My mother leaves very big high heels to fill with a legacy of compassion, commitment and positive social change,” said Jeanne Phillips, in a statement.

Private funeral services were held Thursday.

_______

 

 

 

You know that you have made it if John Prine writes you a song.

-JS

[Finn]

Never heard of her for the life of me, but, from these words alone, seems she was a pretty good soul. She shall be missed. /me salutes.

[rustle]

Never heard of her for the life of me, but, from these words alone, seems she was a pretty good soul. She shall be missed. /me salutes.

 

I'm sorry to hear this. She and her twin sister, Ann Landers, wrote syndicated advice columns for decades, and both were topics of conversation over breakfast in many households.

 

Sometimes her advice was poignant, sometimes hilarious, occasionally wrong, but whenever she was wrong, she'd publish a retraction, an apology, and the correct info. They call it being responsible.

[TetRefine]

Every time I read the paper, the Dear Abby section is always on my list of pages I stop at and read. Sad to hear she's gone. 

[Cia]

Her column is still going. Her daughter took it over some time ago. It is always sad to see positive icons in nationwide media pass though.

[JamesSavik]

She did a lot to put to rest some of the hostility toward gay people.

 

She got many letters from mothers and fathers of gay and lesbians and made it clear: your gay kids don't have a problem. They don't need to be cured. You do.

[Finn]

I'm sorry to hear this. She and her twin sister, Ann Landers, wrote syndicated advice columns for decades, and both were topics of conversation over breakfast in many households.

 

Sometimes her advice was poignant, sometimes hilarious, occasionally wrong, but whenever she was wrong, she'd publish a retraction, an apology, and the correct info. They call it being responsible.

 

Aha, I've never read a newspaper in my life. >_<

 

Though, as a posted earlier, she sounds like a wise, wonderful woman, apt in being a human we need more of. Least she held a major, positive impact on the world, before her time came.

[Daddydavek]

She and her sister both were both examples of common sense, no nonsense, and were fearless in their replies.  Abby was noted for her short replies which often skewered the writer who asked her advice.  She never validated anyone's prejudice.   We had two dailies when I was growing up, the morning Globe-Democrat and the afternoon Post-Dispatch.   Abby was in the morning paper and her twin Ann was in the afternoon paper.  I usually read both papers and both columns.   Their columns were often the topic of conversations.