The magazine editor who inspired a '70s sitcom

Frances Lear, founder of Lear's, a pioneering magazine for older women, died in New York City on this day (September 30) in 1996. Lear spent a reported $25 million of her $100-plus million divorce settlement from TV producer Norman Lear to launch her magazine, which started up in 1988 and survived for six years. She was also widely reported to be the model for the title character in her husband's 1970s sitcom Maude. Her autobiography is "The Second Seduction" (Knopf, 1992).