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Esther Pauline Friedman Lederer (July 4, 1918 - June 22, 2002) wrote the Ann Landers column, a regular column in many newspapers in which people wrote her for advice and she answered. She won a contest to take over the column in 1955, and wound up as owner of the copyright. She chose not to have a different writer continue the column after her death; it ended when the few weeks' of material she had sent out before she died ran out.
Esther was an identical twin; her sister, Pauline Esther Friedman, wrote the Dear Abby column as Abigail van Buren. As children, they went by the nicknames "Eppie" and "Popo".
Her home for many years was Chicago, Illinois, where she died of multiple myeloma.
The Ann Landers column was already being written, for the last few months of Friedman's life, for the most part by her daughter, Margo Coleman. It was decided ahead of time, however, that the column would not continue after Friedman's death.
