'Dear Abby' dies at 94

From chron, TMZ.com is reporting that Pauline Phillips, the creator of the "Dear Abby" advice column, died yesterday at the age of 94.


Phillips retired in 2002 and was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, took over the column. We will provide more information as it becomes available.


Phillips' Wikipedia entry has already been changed to reflect the death.


The "Dear Abby" column started in the mid-1950s in The San Francisco Chronicle. Jeanne Phillips had been helping her mother with the column since she was a teenager, she told the newspaper in 2008.


When Pauline Phillips retired, Jeanne Phillips continued the column in her mother's voice, before deciding it was time to take it over in her own style. "My style and her style are different," she said. "My mother's style was softer."