Margo Coleman
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Margo Coleman (born Margo Lederer in March 1940) is an American writer. She is often known by her pen name Margo Howard. Born in Chicago, Illinois, she is the only child of noted advice columnist Ann Landers.
[edit] Education and career
Howard attended Brandeis University, but did not receive a degree, leaving school to marry. She worked at two Chicago newspapers, the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Daily News. She also wrote for several magazines, including The New Republic, People, The Nation, and Boston Magazine. She penned a syndicated social commentary column, "Margo", in the 1970s.
For several years, Howard wrote the Dear Prudence column that was featured in Slate magazine. Dear Prudence was also featured on National Public Radio and syndicated in over 200 newspapers. In February 2006 she left the Dear Prudence column, and now pens a Dear Margo column for Creators Syndicate.
Howard assisted her mother Esther Pauline Friedman with writing her Ann Landers column for many years prior to her mother's death in 2002. It was decided ahead of her death that the column would not continue.
[edit] Family life
Her aunt, Pauline Esther Friedman Phillips, wrote the Dear Abby 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 ironic echo of that rivalry, Coleman has had several public differences with her cousin Jeanne Phillips, who took over the Dear Abby column when her mother became ill with Alzheimer's disease.
She has been married four times: first to John Coleman (1962-1967); second to Jules Furth (1972-1976); third to the actor Ken Howard (1977-1991); fourth (and currently) to Ronald Weintraub, a Boston cardiac surgeon.
She has three children.
