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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Michael Smead

Aired June 23, 2002 - 09:03   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Millions have written and asked her for advice over the years, but now the pen of Ann Landers is still. Landers died of cancer yesterday. Her real name was Esther Pauline Friedman Lederer, Eppie to her friends. Her witty advice reached nearly 90 million readers in 1,200 papers every day. She was 83.

For more on the life and legacy of the woman we call Ann Landers, we're joined by her fellow "Chicago Sun-Times" columnist Michael Smead. Of course, she was most recently in the Tribune. Good to have you with us.

MICHAEL SMEAD, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: Thanks, good morning.

O'BRIEN: What's her legacy?

SMEAD: You know, it's really pretty interesting considering how she died. Here she gave advice to millions of people all over the world and yet, Eppie, when she found out six months ago that she had very serious cancer, opted not to have any treatment at all. She was given painkillers and that's it, and she worked almost up to the end. She was an amazing woman.

O'BRIEN: Why no treatment? What did she tell you about that?

SMEAD: You know what, I don't -- I'm not sure. Well, yes I am sure. Eppie said that she wanted no funeral. She wanted no memorial service. She wanted none of this folderol that follows people dying, that she had a great life and I think she just wanted to live the last months of her life as best she could, rather than perhaps mutilated by treatment.

O'BRIEN: Good point, quality of life. I'll read something very interesting this morning. For all I know, you might have said it. So, I'll repeat it anyway. "If an anthropologist were to look at her letters over the course of some 50 years, in total they would give you a great insight into our society and what we were thinking about that time." Would you go along with that?

SMEAD: Yes, you know the amazing thing about Eppie was she was always giving advice. She called herself the general manager of the world, and I don't mean just in newspapers, to her friends, those of us. She was always doing that, and you know, she did happen to have her thumb on everything. Although, what was funny is, mainly Eppie in the later years did her column from home, sometimes in the bathtub. I mean, Eppie was just a great character. I mean she loved going out in the evening. She slept in the morning. She got up. She worked in the afternoon and then she went out in the evening again, and she was always full of smiles, and she had great friends.

One of her great friends, by the way, for 40 years was Father Ted Hesberg (ph) of Notre Dame, and he was one of the few people that she permitted to see her during the last weeks of her life.

They were very, very close friends. As a matter of fact, even though Eppie was Jewish, she had a rosary apparently that Hesberg had given her right near her bed.

O'BRIEN: How do you explain the Ann Landers phenomenon? It's enduring popularity, it's sustained interest? It's really amazing.

SMEAD: Well, it is. I mean, it is amazing. I think it's just because Eppie was always out there. She had a lot of friends. She listened. She was incredibly bright. She cared. She was very liberal. She was very privately involved politically, and I mean she just always stayed on top of things, which was kind of amazing.

You know, those of use who are becoming old bats in the business sometimes forget that. Eppie was always there. She was always reading. I mean if you were with Eppie, you were going to be talking about all kinds of things other than your personal life. You were going to be talking about the world.

O'BRIEN: Michael Smead, "Chicago Sun-Times" columnist, thank you very much for joining us from the Windy City. Our condolences to you and the rest of Eppie's rather extensive family, if you think about it that way. Take care.

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