Background
Graham was born and raised in Chicago. Her father, an immigrant from Germany, was a successful businessman who owned the Komiss department store chain.
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An account of the joys and struggles of widowhood offers an inspirational blueprint for merry widowhood, filled with humorous anecdotes, wisdoms, and suggestions on a broad range of topics from safety to senior-citizen sex
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Graham was born and raised in Chicago. Her father, an immigrant from Germany, was a successful businessman who owned the Komiss department store chain.
She graduated from the Frances Parker School in Chicago. She attended the University of Chicago, where she majored in anthropology, and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She then studied journalism at Northwestern University, and received a master"s degree.
On television, Graham hosted the syndicated programs Food for Thought (1953–1957), Girl Talk, which debuted in January 1963 and ran until 1969. And The Virginia Graham Show (1970-1972). She was also a guest on many other programs.
She hosted her first radio talk show in 1951.
Graham was a panelist on the DuMont panel show Where Was I? (1952-1953). She succeeded Margaret Truman in 1956 as co-host of the National Broadcasting Company radio show Weekday, teamed with Mike Wallace.
While co-hosting Weekday, Graham read a letter from a listener that caused her to collapse into hysterics, much to Wallace"s chagrin. The segment was not aired at the time, but has since become a staple of blooper records and retrospectives.
In 1982, Graham played fictional talk show host "Stella Stanton" in the final episodes of the soap opera Texas.
Her book about her husband"s death, Life After Harry: My Adventures in Widowhood, became a bestseller in 1988. Graham, a cancer survivor, was a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. A former smoker, she denounced smoking whenever the opportunity arose.
Virginia had a heart attack on December 11, 1998, and died at a New York hospital on December 22.
She was 86.
(An account of the joys and struggles of widowhood offers ...)
Quotations: "a bright, alert, talkative woman of ripe, tart-edged candor.".