Twin sisters & advice columnists Ann Landers (Esther Eppie Lederer), left, and Dear Abby (Pauline Phillips, aka Abigail Van Buren) in 1976.
Ann Landers and Abigail (Dear Abby) Van Buren, arguably the most famous advice columnists, should have asked for some advice on their own relationship. Their lives began as most twins’ do, which is to say, similar. The identical twins, born Esther “Eppie” and Pauline Friedman, respectively, were born in Iowa in 1918 and attended nearby Morningside College, where they both worked on the school’s newspaper. They married their husbands in a double marriage ceremony on their 21st birthday in July 1939. In 1956, their similarities turned into contention. Mere months after Eppie assumed the position of the Chicago Sun Times’ “Ann Landers” advice columnist following the creator’s death, Pauline began her own similar column, “Dear Abby.” Their competing columns created an unavoidable rift–in 1956, Pauline allegedly offered “Dear Abby” at a reduced rate to their hometown’s Sioux City Journal, as long as it did not run “Ann Landers.” Though they reconciled in 1964, their discord continued until shortly before Eppie passed away in 2002. Sadly, the feud continued after her death. Eppie’s daughter Margo Howard publicly criticized her cousin Jeanne (Pauline’s daughter, who had assumed the role of Dear Abby) for her melodramatic printed farewell to her “Dear Aunt Eppie,” stating that the letter was “self-serving and loopy. They really had no relationship. My mother was very kind to everyone, [but] she thought Jeanne had her limitations.”