Ann Landers biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Using the pen name "Ann Landers," Eppie Lederer became one of America's most trusted source of advice for decades through her newspaper column. Landers was born Esther Pauline Friedman on July 4, 1918, in Sioux City, Iowa, to Russian-Jewish immigrants: Her father owned a successful movie theater business, and her mother was a homemaker.

Growing up, Landers was incredibly close to her identical twin sister, Pauline Phillips, who would also go on to become a revered advice columnist, under the pseudonym "Abigail Van Buren." The two even went to the same college -- Morningside College in Sioux City -- and, on July 2, 1938, had a joint wedding ceremony: Landers married Jules Lederer, who would later found Budget Rent-a-Car, and Van Buren wed a businessman named Morton Phillips.

Becoming 'Ann Landers'

Living in Chicago, Illinois, in the mid-1950s, Landers decided that she wanted to do more than be a stay-at-home wife and mother: Noticing an advice column in The Chicago Sun-Times called "Ask Ann Landers," she inquired about helping the columnist out. It turned out that the previous columnist, Ruth Crowley, had died, and the paper was looking a replacement. More than 20 people applied for the position, but Landers won out, officially taking over her now-famous pen name.

Known for her wisecracking and candid writing style, Landers quickly developed a large following, and her column was soon put into syndication and read by a national audience.

Family Feud

In an odd twist of fate, beginning in 1956, she found herself competing with her twin sister: Van Buren had begun writing her own column, "Dear Abby," which, like "Ask Ann Landers," garnered wide acclaim. Van Buren hadn't informed her sister of her column-writing plans, and a devastated Landers severed all ties with her twin. "I felt betrayed. Because she didn't tell me that she was considering it, she didn't tell me -- she just presented it as a fact," Landers later explained. The sisters' dispute lasted for nearly a decade, becoming increasingly bitter as the years passed by, and was heavily covered by the press.

"They became serious competitors," Henry Ginsburg, Landers's high school boyfriend, later said of the rivalry. "And it escalated to bounds that nobody expected. Nobody could believe what happened. And the scandal sheets loved it." On April 7, 1958, LIFE magazine published an article that aired the sisters' dirty laundry to the world. Featuring the sisters sniping at each other throughout, the piece concluded that theirs was, quote, "the most, feverish female feud since Elizabeth sent Mary Queen of Scots to the chopping block."