Dear Abby

**Wesley** · 01-17-2013, 03:08 PM

Pauline Esther Phillips, who was known to millions of newspaper readers as the “Dear Abby” advice columnist Abigail Van Buren, has died. She was 94.She died yesterday in Minneapolis after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease, according to a statement by Universal Uclick, syndicator of Dear Abby. Phillips lived in Minnetonka, Minnesota.
With her identical twin, Esther Pauline Lederer, who wrote under the Ann Landers pseudonym until her death in 2002, Phillips brought the staid newspaper advice-to-the-lovelorn column into the modern era. Like her sister, she replied to letters about serious social issues such as teen sex, divorce, alcoholism and AIDS, and answered them with a mix of candor, common sense and an occasional wisecrack.

Pauline Esther Friedman was born on July 4, 1918, in Sioux City, Iowa, 17 minutes after her sister. She was the fourth daughter of Rebecca and Abraham Friedman, who came to the U.S. in 1908 from Vladivostok, Russia. Her parents called her “Popo” and her sister “Eppie.”

The 1918 Jewish twins were of course born in Sioux City, attended Morningside, and were two of the more famous former Iowans.