Feder: Lee Phillip Bell, 'First Lady of Chicago TV,' recalled as 'gracious and kind'
Lee Phillip Bell, the Chicago talk show pioneer who co-created two long-running CBS soap operas, is being remembered as the "First Lady of Chicago Television," Robert Feder writes.
Bell died Tuesday in Los Angeles at 91.
From 1952 to 1986 she hosted "The Lee Phillip Show" and "Noonbreak" on CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2.
Together with her late husband, William J. Bell, she created "The Young and the Restless" in 1973 and "The Bold and the Beautiful" in 1987, moving Bell-Phillip Television Productions to L.A. with their children, William James Bell, Bradley Phillip Bell and Lauralee Bell Martin.
Born Loreley June Phillip in 1928 in Chicago, she graduated from Riverside-Brookfield High School and Northwestern University while working in her family's floral shop.
An opportunity to demonstrate flower arrangement led to full-time employment at CBS 2 and her first show, "Mornin' Miss Lee."
Get the full report, and more Chicago media news, at robertfeder.com.