Jeanne Phillips
Encyclopedia
Jeanne Phillips (ˈ; born in 1942) is an advice column
Advice column
An advice column is a column in a magazine or newspaper written by an advice columnist . The image presented was originally of an older woman providing comforting advice and maternal wisdom, hence the name "aunt"...

ist who writes the advice column Dear Abby
Dear Abby
Dear Abby is the name of the advice column founded in 1956 by Pauline Phillips under the pen name Abigail Van Buren and carried on today by her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, who now owns the legal rights to the pen name....

.

She is the daughter of Pauline Phillips
Pauline Phillips
Pauline Phillips is an American advice columnist and radio show host who began the "Dear Abby" column in 1956. Married to Morton Phillips, the couple has two children, a son, Edward Jay Phillips, and a daughter, Jeanne Phillips....

, who founded "Dear Abby" in 1956, and her husband, Morton Phillips. In a Dear Abby column on December 12, 2000, Pauline introduced Jeanne as co-creator of Dear Abby. They began to share the byline Abigail Van Buren and both were pictured with the column. Jeanne officially assumed the mantle of Dear Abby in August 2002, when the Phillips family made the announcement that Pauline had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...

. Jeanne continues to write under the pen name "Abigail Van Buren."

Jeanne Phillips' Dear Abby is syndicated in about 1,400 newspapers in the U.S. with a combined circulation of more than 110 million. Dear Abby's website receives about 10,000 letters per week, seeking advice on a large variety of personal matters.

Jeanne Phillips' history with Dear Abby


Jeanne Phillips began assisting her mother, Pauline Phillips
Pauline Phillips
Pauline Phillips is an American advice columnist and radio show host who began the "Dear Abby" column in 1956. Married to Morton Phillips, the couple has two children, a son, Edward Jay Phillips, and a daughter, Jeanne Phillips....

 with the Dear Abby
Dear Abby
Dear Abby is the name of the advice column founded in 1956 by Pauline Phillips under the pen name Abigail Van Buren and carried on today by her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, who now owns the legal rights to the pen name....

 column at the age of 14 in order to earn an allowance. When Jeanne asked her mother for an allowance, Pauline answered, "What are you going to do for it?" Pauline then said that her Dear Abby column received a substantial amount of mail from teenagers and that Jeanne could reply to some of them. If Jeanne's responses were "good", her mother would use them in the column. If her responses were not good, Jeanne would rewrite them. Jeanne spent her allowance money on watching movies and plays. She went to San Francisco several times to see the play, Li'l Abner
Li'l Abner
Li'l Abner is a satirical American comic strip that appeared in many newspapers in the United States, Canada and Europe, featuring a fictional clan of hillbillies in the impoverished town of Dogpatch, Kentucky. Written and drawn by Al Capp , the strip ran for 43 years, from August 13, 1934 through...

.

In the 1970s, Phillip helped her mother write over half of the columns for her nationally syndicated radio show on CBS News
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...

. In 1980, she became the radio show's column executive editor, and in 1987, she became its co-editor. Beginning in 1987, she had worked with her mother on the nationally syndicated Dear Abby column. She began writing a majority of the columns since the early 1990s, though, until 2000, her mother did not publicly acknowledge her as the column's co-writer. Jeanne worked as the writer, while Pauline edited. While Pauline remained at home, Jeanne would manage the office and their paid staff. Mother and daughter were listed as the writers after a December 12, 2000, letter to readers. A photo of the two was affixed to each column. Beginning on July 22, 2002, Jeanne was attributed as the only writer of the column. Kathie Kerr, a spokeswoman for Universal Press Syndicate
Universal Press Syndicate
Universal Press Syndicate, a subsidiary of Andrews McMeel Universal, is the world's largest independent press syndicate. It distributes lifestyle and opinion columns, comic strips and other content. Popular columns include Dear Abby, Ann Coulter, Roger Ebert and News of the Weird...

, the distributor of the column, said: "Over the past couple of years, Pauline Phillips hasn't had any day to day activities with the column."

Every day, her column is read by 110 million people and syndicated in about 1,400 newspapers. Every week, she gets from 5,000 to 10,000 letters and emails asking her for advice. Reading and replying to the mail sometimes takes her more than eight hours a day. After crafting a response, Phillips sets it aside. A few days later, she reviews it to ensure that her feelings about the subject remain unchanged. When she is not knowledgeable about a subject, she consults experts from various fields, including "medical, psychiatric, legal, ethical", and religious. Phillips noted that the column touches on numerous topics, including "organ donation, domestic violence, mental health, child safety, volunteerism, civility, alcohol abuse, inhalant abuse ... and the dangers of tobacco". According to Pernell Watson of the Daily Press
Daily Press (Virginia)
The Daily Press is a morning newspaper located in Newport News, Virginia, that covers the Hampton Roads metro area of Virginia. It was established in 1896 and has been owned by the Tribune Company since July 1986...

, Phillips will send an unprinted, confidential reply to readers who send a "self-addressed, stamped envelope".

On Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day
Saint Valentine's Day, commonly shortened to Valentine's Day, is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496...

 in 2001, the Dear Abby radio show was honored with the 2,172nd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...

. Around 60 family members and friends took part in the 30-minute ceremony. Jeanne Phillips paid the $15,000 sponsorship fee for the star and its maintenance to honor her mother. The Dear Abby radio show lasted for 12 years. Jeanne wrote and produced Pauline's shows; Pauline was the radio show host.

Style and support of gay marriage

Phillips characterized her mother's style as "softer", while she herself "[gets] to the root of the problem quickly". Both Jeanne and Pauline have made gay marriage a topic in their column. In 1984, Pauline directed the parent of a gay child to Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). In 2007, her daughter openly announced her support of gay marriage. In the same year, she was given the "Straight for Equality" award by PFLAG.

Operation Dear Abby

Operation Dear Abby was started during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

 in 1967 by Phillips' mother, through which holiday messages were sent to American soldiers. Phillips' mother was inspired to create this service when Billy Thompson, a sergeant, requested a letter from home for his Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

 present.

When the 2001 anthrax attacks
2001 anthrax attacks
The 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, also known as Amerithrax from its Federal Bureau of Investigation case name, occurred over the course of several weeks beginning on Tuesday, September 18, 2001, one week after the September 11 attacks. Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to...

 occurred, the operation was postponed. Jeanne Phillips collaborated with The Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...

 to create an Internet substitute. In 2003, the website received on average 20,000 to 30,000 messages every day. Prior to the Iraq War, the website received only 2,000 to 3,000 messages every day.

The messages are categorized by state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 and uniformed service
Uniformed services of the United States
The United States has seven federal uniformed services that commission officers as defined by Title 10, and subsequently structured and organized by Title 10, Title 14, Title 33 and Title 42 of the United States Code.-Uniformed services:...

 but are not sent to specific individuals. Soldiers received the messages by either accessing them on OperationDearAbby.net or when their officers printed out the messages for distribution.

Interviews and media

Phillips has appeared on many television talk shows, including multiple appearances on CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

's Larry King Live
Larry King Live
Larry King Live is an American talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was CNN's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly....

. Many prestigious national organizations have acknowledged her for her advice and efforts to educate her readers on different topics including those related to health, safety, and acceptance of multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...

 and diversity.

On December 1, 2005, Jeanne made her first live radio broadcast via Internet radio
Internet radio
Internet radio is an audio service transmitted via the Internet...

. In her press release regarding that broadcast, she said that she sometimes calls people who have written her since, in many cases, it is easier to advise people over the phone than through letters.

Personal life

Jeanne Phillips was born to Pauline Phillips
Pauline Phillips
Pauline Phillips is an American advice columnist and radio show host who began the "Dear Abby" column in 1956. Married to Morton Phillips, the couple has two children, a son, Edward Jay Phillips, and a daughter, Jeanne Phillips....

, the founder of Dear Abby
Dear Abby
Dear Abby is the name of the advice column founded in 1956 by Pauline Phillips under the pen name Abigail Van Buren and carried on today by her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, who now owns the legal rights to the pen name....

, and Morton Phillips in 1942. She has a brother, Edward "Eddie" Phillips, who is about two years her junior. When she was three years old, her family moved from Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

 to Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Eau Claire is a city located in the west-central part of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 65,883 as of the 2010 census, making it the largest municipality in the northwestern portion of the state, and the 9th largest in the state overall. It is the county seat of Eau Claire County,...

. Phillips attended elementary school
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...

 at Hillsborough
Hillsborough, California
Hillsborough is an incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Hillsborough is one of the wealthiest communities in America and has the highest income of places in the United States with populations of at least 10,000...

, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. For the first two years of secondary education, she attend Burlingame High School
Burlingame High School
Burlingame High School is a public high school in Burlingame, California. It is part of the San Mateo Union High School District .-History:...

. After her sophomore year, she transferred to Crystal Springs Uplands School
Crystal Springs Uplands School
Crystal Springs Uplands School is an independent, coeducational, college prep day school with 350 students located in Hillsborough, California...

 and attended the private school for one year. Shortly thereafter, her family moved back to Twin Cities
Twin cities
Twin cities are a special case of two cities or urban centres which are founded in close geographic proximity and then grow into each other over time...

 in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

, so her father would be able to take the helm of her feeble grandfather's liquor-distribution business. For her senior year in high school, she attended Washburn High School
Washburn High School
Minneapolis Washburn High School is a four-year public high school serving grades 9–12 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. By enrollment, Washburn is the fourth-largest high school in the Minneapolis Public School District.Principal Mrs...

 in Minneapolis. Phillips enjoyed the school, saying, "I loved it. I was never the most popular girl in the class. I never aspired to be. But I did make very nice friends." In college, she majored in English and anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

. She studied anthropology at the University of Colorado
University of Colorado
The University of Colorado system is a system of public universities in Colorado consisting of three universities in four campuses: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, and University of Colorado Denver in downtown Denver and at the Anschutz Medical Campus in...

 and UCLA
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...

 though did not work in the field. She attempted interior design
Interior design
Interior design describes a group of various yet related projects that involve turning an interior space into an effective setting for the range of human activities are to take place there. An interior designer is someone who conducts such projects...

 but ultimately decided it was unsatisfactory.

Phillips' aunt, Eppie Lederer
Eppie Lederer
Esther Pauline "Eppie" Lederer , better known by the pseudonym Ann Landers, was an American advice columnist and eventually a nationwide media celebrity who began her career writing the 'Ask Ann Landers' column in 1955, soon after the death of its creator, Ruth Crowley...

—Pauline's twin sister and the final columnist of the Ask Ann Landers
Ask Ann Landers
Ann Landers was a pen name created by Chicago Sun-Times advice columnist Ruth Crowley in 1943 and taken over by Eppie Lederer in 1955. For 56 years, the Ask Ann Landers syndicated advice column was a regular feature in many newspapers across North America...

 advice column—died in June 2002. In addition to penning a tribute column, Phillips read a poem about her aunt on Larry King Live
Larry King Live
Larry King Live is an American talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was CNN's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly....

. In an interview with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in 2001, Lederer said: "Jeanne has been working with her mother for 20 years, and it seems to be a perfect fit." Lederer's daughter, Margo Howard, writes an advice column . After Phillips' appearance on Larry King Live, her cousin Howard censured her. Phillips said: "The term a lot of people have been using is feud. All I can say, and this is from my heart to yours, there's no feud on my part. I wish my cousin the best."

Phillips married a "brilliant, charming, talented" man in the 1970s, a California lawyer, but the marriage was not successful. She planned to remain single but later fell in love again. In 2002, she married her second husband, a real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...

 agent named Walter Harris. Every day, Phillips reads the letters sent to her Dear Abby
Dear Abby
Dear Abby is the name of the advice column founded in 1956 by Pauline Phillips under the pen name Abigail Van Buren and carried on today by her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, who now owns the legal rights to the pen name....

 column and pens her column in the afternoon. In the evenings, she either cooks or goes out to dinner with her husband. When asked who her Dear Abby was, Phillips replied that her husband is her "primary support" and her friends were her "secondary support".

She has largely kept her personal life to herself, with only occasional references to it while advising people or during interviews. In comparison to her cousin, Margo Howard, Phillips has been called "reserved".

According to a 2002 interview, Phillips and her husband have no children. Her date of birth has not been made public. She said in a 2002 interview that she is "younger than springtime". Phillips lives in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. In 2002, the Phillips family revealed that Jeanne's mother, Pauline, had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...

. Tim Johnson, a medical journalist
Medical journalism
Medical journalism is the dissemination of health-related information through mainstream media outlets. Medical issues are widely reported, and these reports influence doctors, the general public, and the government. The coverage is often criticized for being misleading, inaccurate, or speculative...

 for ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...

, wrote in February 2010 that Pauline resides with her husband, Morton, in Minnetonka, Minnesota
Minnetonka, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 51,301 people, 21,393 households, and 14,097 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,893.0 persons per square mile . There were 22,228 housing units at an average density of 818.9 per square mile...

 and has caregivers. Pauline's son, Eddie, said:

Phillips is Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

. In her column, she writes holiday greetings to people of all religions and occasionally gives advice to people based on their religion.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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