{{Short description|American magazine publisher, writer, and feminist (1923–1996)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2015}} {{Infobox person | name = Frances Lear | image = Frances Lear.jpg | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Evelyn Loeb | birth_date = {{Birth date|1923|7|14}} | birth_place = Hudson, New York, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1996|9|30|1923|7|14}} | death_place = New York City, New York, U.S. | nationality = | other_names = | occupation = Activist, publisher, editor, writer | years_active = | known_for = ''Lear's'' | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Arnold P. Weiss|end=divorced}} * {{marriage|Morton Kaufmann|end=divorced}} * {{marriage|Norman Lear|1956|1985|reason=div}} }} | children = 2 }} '''Frances Lear''' (''née'' '''Loeb''', July 14, 1923 – September 30, 1996) was an American activist, magazine publisher, editor and writer.
==Biography==
Lear was born with only a first name, Evelyn, to an unwed mother in Hudson, New York, at the Vanderheusen Home for Wayward Girls.<ref name=People>{{cite web|url=https://people.com/archive/frances-lear-vol-38-no-2/|title=Frances Lear|last=Gleick|first=Elizabeth|work=People|volume=38|issue=2|date=July 13, 1992}}</ref> After being placed in a Jewish orphanage,<ref name=francestimedetails1989 /> she was adopted at 14 months by Aline and Herbert Loeb from Larchmont, New York, who changed her name from Evelyn to Frances. Her adoptive mother was of German Jewish ancestry.<ref name=francestimedetails1989>{{cite news|url=https://time.com/archive/6702488/frances-lear-a-maturing-woman-unleashed/|title=FRANCES LEAR: A Maturing Woman Unleashed|publisher=Time|date=May 14, 1989|accessdate=April 12, 2026}}</ref> When she was 10 years old, her adoptive father committed suicide after losing his business in the Depression. Her mother remarried and when Frances was 12, her stepfather began molesting her, according to her autobiography. She attended the Mary A. Burnham School for Girls in Northampton, Massachusetts.<ref name="nyt">{{cite news|last1=Nemy|first1=Enid|title=Frances Lear, a Mercurial Figure of the Media and a Magazine Founder, Dead at 73|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/01/us/frances-lear-a-mercurial-figure-of-the-media-and-a-magazine-founder-dead-at-73.html|accessdate=April 24, 2017|work=The New York Times|date=October 1, 1996}}</ref>
In her youth, Frances captained a basketball team and also edited her high school yearbook.<ref name=francestimedetails1989 />
She originally made her career as a buyer for women's sportswear at Lord & Taylor.<ref name=wapo /> She was married and divorced twice at a young age, first to Arnold Peter<ref>{{cite web|url=https://preservationsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/2017-progress-fall-1-min.pdf|title=Preservation Progress, Vol. 61, No. 2|publisher=Preservation Society of Charleston|date=Fall 2017|accessdate=April 12, 2026}}</ref> Weiss, who served as traffic manager at the Navy Yard in Charleston, South Carolina,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/01/us/frances-lear-a-mercurial-figure-of-the-media-and-a-magazine-founder-dead-at-73.html|title=Frances Lear, a Mercurial Figure of the Media and a Magazine Founder, Dead at 73|publisher=New York Times|date=October 1, 1996|accessdate=April 12, 2026}}</ref> and secondly to Morton Kaufman (or Kaufmann). In 1956, she married television producer Norman Lear in Las Vegas.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Wolff|first1=Geoffrey|title=Shortcuts to the Heart|url=http://www.normanlear.com/backstory/press/shortcuts-to-the-heart/|accessdate=April 24, 2017|journal=Esquire|date=August 1981|archive-date=April 24, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170424174622/http://www.normanlear.com/backstory/press/shortcuts-to-the-heart/|url-status=dead}}</ref> At age 50, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She became an activist for the women's movement, civil rights and mental health.<ref name="nyt"/><ref name=wapo>{{cite news|last1=Levy|first1=Claudia|last2=Lev|title=Publisher Frances Lear Dies|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1996/10/02/publisher-frances-lear-dies/8f79eec3-ef57-4668-b774-521e915345a4/|accessdate=April 24, 2017|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=October 2, 1996}}</ref>
During the 1968 Democratic Presidential Primaries, she worked on Minnesota U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy's campaign for President.<ref name=francesfeminist>{{cite news|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1996-10-03-1996277066-story.html|title=Frances Lear, 73, a feminist activist who...|publisher=Baltimore Sun|date=October 3, 1996|accessdate=October 12, 2020}}</ref><ref name=maudelear /> She later worked with the National Organization for Women on behalf of the Equal Rights Amendment.<ref name=maudelear /><ref name=francesfeminist />
In 1985, she divorced Lear after 28 years of marriage. The divorce settlement, estimated to be between $100 million to $112 million ({{Inflation|US|112000000|1985|r=0|fmt=eq}}), was one of the largest on record.<ref name="nyt"/> She used $25 million of the settlement to start ''Lear's'', a magazine targeting women over 45. She was ''Advertising Age'' Editor of the Year in 1989. The magazine folded six years later.<ref>{{cite news|title=Frances Lear Dead at 73|url=http://adage.com/article/news/frances-lear-dead-73/76824/|accessdate=April 24, 2017|work=Advertising Age|date=October 7, 1996|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Helmore|first1=Edward|title=Obituary: Frances Lear|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-frances-lear-5597942.html|accessdate=April 24, 2017|work=The Independent|date=October 4, 1996}}</ref>
She is acknowledged to be the inspiration for the character Maude Findlay on the sitcom ''Maude''.<ref name="maudelear">{{cite news|url=https://apnews.com/article/8a9a501e60ce90a95a742eb1d944bb0f|title=Frances Lear, Magazine Publisher, Dead at 73|publisher=Associated Press|date=October 1, 1996|accessdate=October 12, 2020}}</ref><ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211209/RoyWkMuK_P4 Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20141106185918/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoyWkMuK_P4&feature=youtube_gdata_player Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite AV media| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoyWkMuK_P4| title = Norman Lear on introducing Bea Arthur as "Maude" on All in the Family, and similarities betwee... | website=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=In other news|url=https://www.cnn.com/US/9610/01/newsbriefs/|accessdate=April 24, 2017|publisher=CNN|date=October 1, 1996}}</ref> Norman Lear gave some support to this suggestion, including in his 1998 Emmy Legends interview.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/norman-lear|title=Norman Lear Interview:Chapter 6|author=The Interviews|publisher=Television Academy Foundation|date=February 26, 1998|accessdate=March 23, 2023}}</ref><ref name="maudelear" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Stanley |first=Alessandra |date=2014-12-05 |title=Norman Lear's 'Even This I Get to Experience' |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/books/review/norman-lears-even-this-i-get-to-experience.html |access-date=2022-08-02 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Ewing |first1=Heidi |last2=Grady |first2=Rachel |date=2016-07-06 |title=Video: Opinion {{!}} Not Dead Yet |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000004502216/not-dead-yet.html |access-date=2022-08-02 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
Frances Lear published an autobiography in 1992, ''The Second Seduction'', and at the time of her death had written another book, ''Frances Lear's Guide to Work and Family in the 21st Century''.<ref name="nyt"/>
She had two daughters, Kate (b. 1957) and Maggie (b. 1959), with Norman Lear. She died of breast cancer at age 73.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Oliver|first1=Myrna|title=Frances Lear; Founder of Women's Magazine|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-10-01-mn-49369-story.html|access-date=April 24, 2017|work=Los Angeles Times|date=October 1, 1996}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist|2}}
== External links == *{{IMDb name|id=0495178|name=Frances Lear}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lear, Frances}} Category:1923 births Category:1996 deaths Category:Jewish American feminists Category:Deaths from breast cancer in New York (state) Category:Jews from New York (state) Category:Norman Lear Category:People with bipolar disorder Category:20th-century American Jews Category: Jewish women activists
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