10 groundbreaking women we lost in 2013

Decades ago, a smart housewife named Pauline Phillips who thought there might be more than mah-jongg to her life transformed herself into the syndicated columnist “Dear Abby,� becoming a trusted, tart-tongued advisor to tens of millions.

In a time before the Internet (hard to imagine, we know), her column’s influence on American culture was huge; in popular parlance, Dear Abby was an affectionate synonym for trustworthy, friendly advice. How did she do it?

“I learned how to listen,� she told a newspaper interviewer years later. “Sometimes, when people come to you with a problem, the best thing you can do is listen.�

Phillips is seen above in an undated file photo.  (AFP/Getty Images)

Doris Lessing, “whose richly imagined, scathingly perceptive novels helped define early feminism and the doomed idealism of the postwar generation� wrote more than 50 books, according to L.A. Times reviews, that explored “the social and political conflicts of her day, the colonial experience in Africa, the possibilities of extraterrestrial life and the conflicted recesses of the female.�

When Lessing learned she had been chosen as the Nobel laureate in literature in 2007, her response was characteristically blunt: “I can’t say I’m overwhelmed with surprise. I’m 88 years old and they can’t give the Nobel to someone who’s dead.�

Lessing is seen above in 2007.  (Shaun Curry / AFP / Getty Images)

Muriel Siebert became a legend on Wall Street as the first woman to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange (and, to her dismay after 1967, remained the only woman admitted there for almost a decade) as well as the first woman to head one of the exchange’s member firms.

She also was the first woman to be superintendent of banking for New York state. One of the (ludicrous, it now seems) obstacles to doing her job included controversy over the placement of a women’s restroom. Siebert, known as a scrapper, said later: “There’s still an old-boy network. You just have to keep fighting.�

Siebert is seen above in 2008.   (Craig Ruttle / Associated Press)

Diane Disney Miller, a patron of the arts in California usually known as the daughter of Walt Disney, was a “formidable cultural presence who played a crucial role in the creation of Walt Disney Concert Hall.�

The building of L.A.’s Disney Hall was contentious. After her mother, Lillian, died in 1997 and the key downtown project foundered, Miller stepped in and fought to keep famed architect Frank Gehry on the job.

“She said she remembered her father coming home from work, beaten down by various studio bosses,� Gehry recalled later, after the concert hall was successfully established. “She said she saw something like that happening here.�

Miller is seen above in 2005.  (Brendan McDermid / EPA)

Marcella Hazen, a newlywed who did not speak English, went on to teach Americans about real Italian food -- after finding that spaghetti sauce in her adopted country tasted more like “overspiced ketchup.�

The chainsmoking biology scholar opened the door to something beyond red-checked tablecloths and Chianti. Even people who have never heard of her, say today’s foodies, cook and shop differently because of the influence of this “Julia Child of Italian cooking� who stressed freshness and basics. Her recipe for tomato sauce includes just four ingredients.

She was never able to write in English, so all of her cookbooks and other works ultimately flowed through her husband, who also published books on wine.

Summed up Hazan: “Simple doesn’t mean easy.�

Hazan is seen above in 2012.  (Chris O’Meara / Associated Press)

A choreographer and dance instructor, Patsy Swayze owed her start in dance to a car accident and a mother determined to help her child recover.

She trained her late actor son Patrick Swayze on his way to “Dirty Dancing� fame; her pupils also included Broadway star Tommy Tune, “Fame� director Debbie Allen, actors Randy Quaid and Jaclyn Smith and her own acting/dancing children.

She taught dance and worked in Hollywood for decades.

She moved to Simi Valley in 1980 after choreographing the movie “Urban Cowboy.�

“It was rural, like Texas, and the three children still living at home could have horses and dogs,� Swayze told the L.A. Times in 1991.

Swayze, center, is seen in 1978 with her son Patrick and his wife Lisa Haapaniemi.   (Tom Colburn / Associated Press)