Jeanne Phillips writes the most widely read advice column in the world, "Dear Abby." She is the daughter of Pauline Esther Friedman Phillips, who founded "Dear Abby" in 1956. In a Dear Abby column in Dec. 2000, Mrs. Phillips 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 Aug. 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."