Agnes Nixon RIP

I’m very sorry to pass on that soap legend Agnes Nixon has passed on. During her long career as a soap opera writer, head writer, and soap creator, Nixon had more influence on the soap opera genre than anyone except Irna Phillips. Her first headwriter job was on Guiding Light where she wrote the landmark Bert Bauer pap smear storyline that was an early social issue and saved many lives as a wave of women followed Bert in for a test. Later she wrote a novelization called The Guiding Light in 1967.

When I started working on gathering people for the soap opera conference, I wanted to hury with hopes the people like Agnes Nixon would be able to attend. Sadly that will no longer be possible, but I’m glad to know that her papers have been deposited in a archive.

When Guiding Light was cancelled she was featured in a couple of interviews. I agree with her diagnosis about what went wrong.

https://glmanny.wordpress.com/2010/07/30/agnes-nixon-interview

A news story about her funeral.
http://6abc.com/news/funeral-held-for-soap-opera-creator-agnes-nixon/1534279

Her full obituary in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/entertainment/celebrities_gossip/Agnes-Nixon-85-creator-of-All-My-Children.html

The Northwestern (she was an alumnus and her papers are housed in their archive)
http://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2016/09/obituary-agnes-nixon

The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/29/arts/television/agnes-nixon-who-injected-social-ills-into-soap-operas-dies-at-93.html?_r=0

Her death was felt around the soap industry. Especially check out the We Love Soaps and TVSource articles below.

We Love Soaps

Be sure to scroll down for the video interview with Nixon and the links to other We Love Soaps articles that reference Nixon at the bottom. http://www.welovesoaps.net/2016/09/agnes-nixon-has-passed-away.html

http://www.welovesoaps.net/2016/10/agnes-nixon-funeral.html

TVSource

http://tvsourcemagazine.com/2016/09/legendary-soap-creator-agnes-nixon-dies-88/

Michael Fairman

On funeral
http://michaelfairmansoaps.com/news/all-her-children-agnes-nixons-funeral-service-brings-touching-bittersweet-reunion/2016/10/01/

Soaps in Depth

http://abc.soapsindepth.com/posts/agnes-nixon-all-my-children-one-life-to-live-dead-114887

Stars send out repsonses.
http://abc.soapsindepth.com/posts/amc-all-my-children-oltl-one-life-to-live-stars-remember-agnes-nixon-115010

Find more on her life and criticism in Contemporary Authors Online. They recommend and used these sources.

FURTHER READINGS ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

BOOKS

• Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 21, Gale, 1982.
• Madeleine Edmondson and David Rounds, From Mary Noble to Mary Hartman: The Complete Soap Opera Book, Stein & Day, 1976.
• Dan Wakefield, All Her Children, Doubleday, 1976.
• Manuela Soares, The Soap Opera Book, Harmony Books, 1978.
• Ruth Warrick and Don Preston, The Confessions of Phoebe Tyler, Prentice-Hall, 1980.

PERIODICALS

• Christian Science Monitor, September 21, 1981.
• Journal of Popular Culture, winter, 1976.
• McCall’s, May, 1970.
• Ms., August, 1974.
• New York Times, July 7, 1968, December 9, 1968, February 22, 1970, August 2, 1970, May 7, 1972, May 28, 1972, October 20, 1974, September 27, 1981, September 30, 1981.
• New York Times Magazine, March 23, 1975.
• Time, January 12, 1976, August 15, 1983.
• TV Guide, May 3, 1975, June 25, 1983.
• Variety, September 5, 1951.

Robansuefarm is the handle of one of Manny and Guiding Light‘s biggest fans following in her family’s footsteps of Guiding Light fandom since 1939. This blog is an effort to make it easy to find Guiding Light and especially Manny online. Check back here for her blog, find fanfic previews and fake WSPR newscasts on her YouTube, find podcasts that look back to old shows and audios of her fanfics on Blog Talk Radio, and finally follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Tags: Agnes Nixon, All My Children, AMC, GL, Guiding Light, OLTL, One Life to Live