Drawing of Jeanne Phillips aka the New Dear Abby... the daughter of Pauline Esther Phillips - aka - Dear Abby (neé 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 "Dear Abby" column in 1956. During her decades writing the column, it became the most widely-syndicated newspaper column in the world, syndicated in hundreds of newspapers around the world with tens of millions of readers.[1] From 1963 to 1975, Phillips also had a daily "Dear Abby" program on CBS Radio.