1955: Eppie Lederer -- our national treasure
"Dear Mrs. Landers."
That's what readers called her then -- not Ann Landers, but Mrs. Landers.
Welcome to the 1950s.
In its first 60 years, one of the Chicago Sun-Times' greatest gifts to the city was to hire Eppie Lederer, a strait-laced housewife from Iowa, to write the Ann Landers advice column. The previous Ann Landers was the strictly anonymous Ruth Crowley. Eppie made the column a national treasure.
In that first column, dated Oct. 16, 1955, a married man wrote to ask if it was OK to fool around with a married woman -- not his wife -- because, you know, the other woman liked auto racing.
Lederer shot back with a now-classic response: "Time wounds all heels -- and you'll get yours."
Lederer was famous for seeking expert advice from the famous and powerful. For a question about who owned the apples that fell into a neighbor's yard, she consulted Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas.
Lederer persuaded the Sun-Times early on to reveal her true identity. She became a national celebrity, and the column's syndicated circulation soared.
Lederer died at age 83 in 2002.