Nora Ephron, who died June 26th at the age of 71, was a very talented screenwriter, director and essayist. She was a native of New York City, but she moved with her screenwriter parents to Beverly Hills after World War 2 and she spent her childhood in California. She moved back to the East Coast to attend Wellesey College, where she majored in Political Science. After she graduated she had brief time working as an intern in the JFK White House. (Humorously covered in an essay in I Feel Bad About My Neck)

She was married three times, once to Carl Bernstein, half of the Washington Post investigative team that broke the Watergate scandal. Her most enduring work came in the hugely popular movies, When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle, which warmly and convincingly probed romantic relationships.