European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 01, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Foiw Jug Vii Ann Landers keeps those answers going by Isabel Wilkerson the new York times anxious in Akron and fed up in Fresno Are waiting along with 500 other put upon neighbors and jilted suitors in attack on a chair in her Chicago la get to them later. She will read their letters in the Bathtub after Din or or in bed before Koppel or on a bar Stool in her Kitchen at lunch and Pound out the answers on her ism electric typewriter until 2 in the morning. When she is stumped she will walk around her 11 room apartment where she has lived since 1974. The letters used to be about which neighbor got the walnuts if the tree was in one Yard and the branches in the other Back when she started in 1955. Now they Are about men who rape their daughters teen agers on cocaine people with aids. There is plenty of time for the letters. The letters will always be there. Right now Ann Landers is a few rooms away a woman whose Only fear it seems is that they will Stop making the ribbons for her typewriter. The Butler has just poured the Earl Grey Tea the Picasso etching is there on the Wall an she Lake is rolled out like some great carpet outside her win Dows. This is the Best View in Chicago she said. It s All water. You can practically see Milwaukee. There will never be anything Between me and the this is the Only place where Ann Landers can answer the country s problems. I have to be in my own Little nest she said. She cannot do her work any where else. And it is a tougher Job than it used to be. American society seems to be falling apart she said. One out of every two marriages ends in divorce. The drug problem is horrendous and seems to be getting worse. Let s face it. America is and she is the available shoulder. She could be an anachronism this great grandmother with the teased Blond hair and perfect nails giving advice to Gay Cou Ples trying to adopt or teen agers packing condoms for the prom. But she has allowed it. She says she has never had a drink or smoked a cigarette but she holds thoroughly modern and mostly Liberal views on the issues of the Day. She supports a woman s right to an abortion is against the death penalty and Corporal punishment is not in favor of adopted children digging up their biological parents against their wishes and believes that or. Jack Kevorkian and the incurably ill people who turn to him for painless deaths should be left alone. She has a firm set of morals but she is practical. She encourages Young people to wait until marriage be Ore they have sex but she knows better. It s marvelous if you can hold out but very few people can do that these Days she conceded. She May be against cohabitation but not for the reasons people May think. The woman generally does the cleaning and cooking and picks up after the Man and contributes much More to the relation ship she said. If it s sex that she wants she can get sex without the she knows what it s like to be single. She was divorced nearly 20 years ago from Jules Lederer the founder of budget rent a car after 36 years of mar told her readers about the divorce in her column which was Shorter than most. I left the White space As a memorial to one of the world s Best marriages that did t make it to the finish line she said. On her own she does precisely As she pleads. She is freshly arrived from Tortola British Virgin is lands and before that Palm Springs calif., and is planning her next trip to London. She has what she discreetly Calls my gentleman Tow new York time Sann Landers at Home in Chicago i love my life the Way it is. I make that Plain to my gentleman friends. This is my no. 1 Guy she said. He s an attorney in Washington. I do have a very Lively social she turned 75 this month and looks closer to 50. Most of the men she has dated Are 10 years younger than she is she said matter of factory. Some women they get picked she said. I be always been in con like the night she met her gentleman Friend at a Kennedy Center dinner in Washington. She was with somebody else and so was he. They started talking and forgot about their dates. He asked if she got to Washington often. She said ill get Here More often believe within 2v5 weeks she was Back supposedly for an emergency meeting of one of the boards she sits on but any of her column could see through that one. There Are no plans for marriage yet. I do not want to marry again she said. I love my life the Way it is. I make that Plain to my gentlemen she talks rapidly in a throaty voice like the actresses in the 1940s movies the ones who played Tough midwestern gals who were secretaries and file clerks but you knew they could do much much More. She came to Chicago nearly 40 years ago with her husband and teen age daughter. She never held a Job and had no plans for a career. Born Eppic Fried Man in Sioux City Iowa she had majored in boys in College. She and her now equal famous twin Sis Ter Abigail Van Buren dropped out when they found husbands. We did t take College seriously she said. My sister and i mostly soon after she got to Chicago the advice columnist of the Chicago Sun times died. Her pen name was Ann Landers and the newspaper ran a contest seeking a replacement. Lederer entered. She be canc the second Ann Landers she is still known privately As Eppic Luderer and grew into the coun try s most widely syndicated columnist appearing in 1,200 newspapers. Every morning 27qqo pieces of mail from people who feel they know her arrive at the Chicago trib Une her Host newspaper for the last six years. They include requests for her Many booklets and notes telling her to drop dead or hang it her staff of seven including two men who have been with her More than 30%cars whittles them Down to 500 letters and separates them by topic say guns in schools or meddling in Laws. A Driver shuttles the letters to her apartment 10 blocks away where she three hours a Day just Reading it s a Long shot to make it into her column. I can sniff out the ones trying to get in the paper she said. People in real trouble spill Coffee on the let Ter. Or she chooses the letters and writes the answers herself doing a week s Worth of columns in 2vi Days. Only i can write that column she said. I select the letters and write the column. When i can no longer do that i m going to Call it a Day. I extract the guts of the letter. I make sure it s grammatical. I edit. I do As Little editing As possible. You would t believe the in her office books and papers Are everywhere. Her Bookcase is full of pictures of her with people like Malcolm Forbes or Art Buchwald or her sex Hus band. See what a Good looking Guy he was she says. After awhile looks Don t matter. Men get fat and Bald. Men tend to put on a couple of pounds in the wrong she has not. She is Petite and trim in her St. John knits and her High heeled pumps. She says she eats everything she wants and exercises everyday by doing stretches and walking around her apartment every hour or so. Her Only Competition is her own twin sister who writes dear Abby from los Angeles and is 17 min utes younger. Their rivalry has been legendary. The two Best known advice columnists in the country born and married on the same Day did not even speak for five years. That was because her sister copied her by going into the advice business without telling her Luderer said. I got into this work first she said. She saw what a great time i was having. And she got into it. I Felt it was mine something that i did. It was a serious problem. After a few years i decided we would have to make up. We were always together on our wedding anniversary1 and birthday. I said we can t go on the rest of our lives like that " now they communicate by Telephone or fax almost every Day and watch each other s work. I do read her letters she said. I think she docs a very Good it is getting late. She is relaxing on the sofa across from the Renoir etching and the Steinway baby grand that came with the apartment and that she does t by but that Michael Feinstein said is great. The hairstylist is expected any minute. There is a Benefit this weekend and the trip to London with her gentleman Friend and dinners to attend in Between. And then there Are the letters waiting for her answer. Page 7
