‘Dear Abby’ columnist Pauline Phillips dies

Pauline Phillips, the woman known to the world as the advice columnist behind “Dear Abby,” has died.

Phillips, the daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants, died Wednesday at 94 after years of battling Alzheimer's disease, according to news reports.

Writing under the pseudonym Abigail van Buren, Phillips' “Dear Abby” was syndicated in more than 1,200 newspapers and had 95 million readers at its height.

Her sister, Eppie Lederer, wrote a similar column under the name Ann Landers. Lederer died in 2002.

Born Pauline Esther Friedman in Iowa, Philips began writing the column in 1956 when she was 37 years old.