Betty Rollin
{{Short description|American journalist and author (1936–2023)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Betty Rollin
| image = Publicity_Photo_of_Betty_Rollin.jpg
| caption = Publicity Photo of Betty Rollin
| birth_date = {{birth date|1936|1|3}}
| birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2023|11|7|1936|1|3}}
| death_place = Basel, Switzerland
| occupation = Journalist and author
| spouse = Dr. Harold Edwards
| alma_mater = Sarah Lawrence College
}}
Betty Rollin (January 3, 1936 – November 7, 2023) was an American journalist and author who was an NBC News correspondent. As a reporter, she won both the DuPont and Emmy awards, and she contributed reports for PBS. She also wrote two memoirs: First, You Cry, about her experiences with breast cancer, and Last Wish, about her mother having terminal cancer and helping her die through assisted suicide.
Background
Rollin was born in New York City in 1936.{{cite news |title=Betty Rollin, Who Wrote Candidly About Her Breast Cancer, Dies at 87 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/24/books/betty-rollin-dead.html |access-date=November 25, 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=November 24, 2023|last = Sandomir|first = Richard|url-access = limited|authorlink=Richard Sandomir}} She was a graduate of Fieldston Ethical Culture School and Sarah Lawrence College, where she was a classmate of Yoko Ono, as Ono mentioned on the Dick Cavett Show.{{Cite web |url=http://www.popmatters.com/review/dick-cavett-show-john-and-yoko/ |title=The Dick Cavett Show: John & Yoko Collection | PopMatters |access-date=January 16, 2014 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304124304/http://www.popmatters.com/review/dick-cavett-show-john-and-yoko/ |url-status=dead }}
Rollin's first interest was acting; she studied under Sanford Meisner and Lee Strasberg and briefly worked in theatre. However, she soon pursued a career as a journalist instead. She wrote for Vogue in the mid-1960s and for Look from 1966 until its closure in 1971. Thereafter, she began a career in TV journalism, working for NBC News from the early 1970s until 1982, and for ABC News from 1982 to 1984. She also contributed to PBS's Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly for over a decade.
Books
=''First, You Cry''=
Rollin was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1975, and again in 1984, each time losing a breast to the disease. Rollin discussed her cancer publicly and wrote about it in the book, First, You Cry.{{cite web|title= Harper Collins|url= http://www.harpercollins.com/browseinside/index.aspx?isbn13=9780060956301|access-date= August 4, 2010|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121021031906/http://www.harpercollins.com/browseinside/index.aspx?isbn13=9780060956301|archive-date= October 21, 2012|url-status= dead}} to encourage public awareness and to give encouragement to others facing this disease.{{cite news|title=At Lunch with--Betty Rollin; After First Crying, Laughing at Cancer|last=Belkin|first=Lisa|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/10/garden/at-lunch-with-betty-rollin-after-first-crying-laughing-at-cancer.html?scp=1&sq=betty%20rollin&st=cse | date=March 10, 1993}} First, You Cry was made into a television movie starring Mary Tyler Moore as Rollin.
=''Last Wish''=
Rollin's mother Ida was diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer in 1981, and Rollin helped her mother end her life in 1983. She revealed this in her book Last Wish,{{cite news|title=Helping Her Mother Die|last=Jacoby|first=Susan|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/09/08/books/helping-her-mother-die.html?scp=8&sq=betty%20rollin&st=cse | date=September 8, 1985}} published in 1985 and republished in 1998. One critic called it "a document of personal compassion and public importance." The book has been published in 19 countries and was made into a TV movie in 1992 starring Patty Duke as Rollin and Maureen Stapleton as her mother.
After the book was published, Rollin was active in the death with dignity movement, and served on the advisory board of Compassion and Choices.
Personal life and death
Rollin lived with her husband, mathematician Harold Edwards, in Manhattan until his death in 2020. They had no children. Rollin's health declined after her husband's death, and she died by assisted suicide at the Pegasos Swiss Association in Basel on November 14, 2023, at the age of 87.
Books
- I Thee Wed (1961)
- Mothers Are Funnier Than Children (1964)
- First, You Cry (1976) {{ISBN|0-06-095630-5}}
- Last Wish (1985) {{ISBN|1-891620-01-0}}
- Am I Getting Paid for This?: A Romance About Work (1986) {{ISBN|0-451-14442-2}}
- Here's the Bright Side: Of Failure, Fear, Cancer, Divorce, and Other Bum Raps (2007) {{ISBN|978-1-4000-6565-3}}
References
{{reflist}}
See also
- [http://www.bettyrollin.net/ Betty Rollin website]
- Death with Dignity National Center
{{Authority control}}
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Category:20th-century American women journalists
Category:20th-century American journalists
Category:20th-century American memoirists
Category:20th-century American women writers
Category:21st-century American Jews
Category:21st-century American women writers
Category:American women non-fiction writers
Category:American women memoirists
Category:American women television journalists
Category:Drug-related suicides in Switzerland
Category:Euthanasia in the United States
Category:Jewish American journalists
Category:Journalists from New York City
Category:Television personalities from New York City