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Abigail Van Buren
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Abigail Van Buren is a pseudonym or pen name used by the writers of the Dear Abby column, Pauline Phillips (born July 4, 1918) and her successor, her daughter Jeanne Phillips.
When Pauline Esther Friedman Phillips founded the column in 1956, she took on the pen name of Abigail Van Buren; she and her daughter Jeanne have used the name ever since. According to Pauline, she combined the name of the biblical character Abigail, mentioned in the Book of Samuel, with the last name of former U.S. President Martin Van Buren.
Pauline was an identical twin: her sister, Esther Pauline Friedman Lederer, who was 17 minutes older than Pauline, wrote the Ann Landers column, which was also syndicated internationally. As children, they grew up in Sioux City, Iowa, the daughters of Russian Jewish immigrants, and went by the nicknames "Popo" and "Eppie", respectively. They were very close and even had a joint wedding ceremony in 1939 at the age of 21. Both of the Friedman twins went to school at Morningside College.
As competing columnists, however, 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 Lederer's death, although that can be questioned considering that Popo (Abby) was (and is) suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
When Pauline retired in 2002, her daughter Jeanne continued writing the column under the pseudonym of Abigail Van Buren.