Jeanne Phillips

Jeanne Phillips (/ˈdʒini ˈfɪlɪps/; born 1942), also known as Abigail Van Buren, is an American advice columnist who writes the advice column Dear Abby. She is the daughter of Pauline Esther "Popo" 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. Jeanne continues to write under the pen name "Abigail Van Buren".

Jeanne Phillips' Dear Abby column 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.

When you're having lunch with her, you get the urge to put down your butter knife, spill your life story and shed tears. Maybe it's her endearing lisp, her Midwest upbringing or her unblinking eyes. Or maybe she just gives more of a darn.

Jeanne Phillips began assisting her mother, Pauline Phillips, with the Dear Abby 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.

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