Margo Howard (née Lederer; born March 15, 1940) is an American writer and former

advice column An advice column is a column in a question and answer format. Typically, a (usually anonymous) reader writes to the media outlet with a problem in the form of a question, and the media outlet provides an answer or response. The responses are wr ...

ist. She is the only child of businessman/innovator Jules Lederer and Eppie Lederer (better known as Ann Landers after her long-time advice column ''

Ask Ann Landers Ann Landers was a pen name created by ''Chicago Sun-Times'' advice columnist Ruth Crowley in 1943 and taken over by Esther Pauline "Eppie" Lederer (July 4, 1918 – June 22, 2002) in 1955. For 56 years, the Ask Ann Landers syndicated ad ...

''), the niece of

Pauline Phillips Pauline Esther "Popo" Phillips (born Friedman; July 4, 1918 – January 16, 2013), also known as Abigail Van Buren, was an American advice columnist and radio show host who began the well-known ''Dear Abby'' newspaper column in 1956. It became t ...

, and the cousin of Jeanne Phillips (the latter two both better known as

Abigail Van Buren Dear Abby is an American advice column founded in 1956 by Pauline Phillips under the pen name "Abigail Van Buren" and carried on today by her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, who now owns the legal rights to the pen name. History According to Paulin ...

and authors of the advice column ''

Dear Abby Dear Abby is an American advice column founded in 1956 by Pauline Phillips under the pen name "Abigail Van Buren" and carried on today by her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, who now owns the legal rights to the pen name. History According to Pauli ...

'').

Biography

Early life and education

Howard was born in

Sioux City, Iowa Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury and Plymouth counties in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Iowa. The bulk of the city is in Woodbury County, ...

, to Eppie (née Esther Pauline Friedman) and Jules Lederer, a businessman and eventually the founder of Budget-Rent-A-Car International. She attended

Brandeis University Brandeis University is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational institution sponsored by the Jews, Jewish community, Brandeis was established on t ...

but dropped out to marry, after which she worked at the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'' and ''

Chicago Daily News The ''Chicago Daily News'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, published between 1875 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois. History The ''Daily News'' was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty ...

'', and wrote for ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...

'', ''

People A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of proper ...

'', ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's ''The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

'', and ''

Boston Magazine ''Boston'' is a monthly magazine concerning life in the Greater Boston area and has been in publication since 1805. History and profile ''Boston'' magazine was started in 1805. Metrocorp, Inc. bought the magazine in 1970. The company also owns ...

''. She wrote a syndicated social commentary column, ''Margo'', in the 1970s.

Career

For eight years, Howard wrote the ''

Dear Prudence "Dear Prudence" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album ''The Beatles'' (also known as "the White Album"). The song was written by John Lennon and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. Written in ...

'' column featured in ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

'' magazine. ''Dear Prudence'' also was featured on

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from othe ...

and syndicated in more than 200 newspapers. In February 2006, she left the ''Dear Prudence'' column, and began writing a ''Dear Margo'' column for Yahoo, then for Women on the Web (wowowow.com) through

Creators Syndicate Creators Syndicate (also known as Creators) is an American independent distributor of comic strips and syndicated columns to daily newspapers, websites, and other digital outlets. When founded in 1987, Creators Syndicate became one of the few suc ...

. On May 11, 2013, Howard ended the ''Dear Margo'' column, announcing that she was retiring from writing on a deadline and saying, "I plan to write long-form pieces as the spirit moves me". Her aunt, Pauline Esther Friedman "Popo" Phillips, wrote the ''

'' column. Although her mother and aunt were twin sisters, and close while growing up, an intense rivalry developed between them because of their columns. In an echo of that rivalry, Howard and her aunt never got along, and she has had public differences with her cousin Jeanne Phillips, who took over the ''Dear Abby'' column when her mother died. In 2014, Howard published ''Eat, Drink, and Remarry: Confessions of a Serial Wife'', reminisces of her four marriages.

Marriages and family

Howard has been married four times: first to John Coleman (1962–1967); second to Jules Furth (1971–1976); third to the actor

Ken Howard Kenneth Joseph Howard Jr. (March 28, 1944 – March 23, 2016) was an American actor. He was known for his roles as Thomas Jefferson in '' 1776'' and as basketball coach and former Chicago Bulls player Ken Reeves in the television show '' The Whi ...

(1977–1991); fourth (and currently) to Ronald Weintraub, a Boston cardiac surgeon. After her divorce from Howard, she retained the surname for professional use. Howard has three children by Coleman: two daughters, Abra and Andrea, and a son, Adam Coleman Howard, who is an actor and director.

References

https://www.nytimes.com/1971/06/25/archives/margo-coleman-is-wed-in-chicago.html

External links

''Dear Margo'' page on Creators Syndicate

''Chicago Tribune'' Profile of Landers Family
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Margo American advice columnists Jewish advice columnists American women columnists Writers from Chicago Writers from Sioux City, Iowa Brandeis University alumni Jewish American writers Chicago Daily News people Chicago Tribune people The New Republic people 1940 births Living people