Remembering one of Sylvia Porter’s ghostwriters

Beth Kobliner writes about Lydia Ratcliff, who recently died and was a ghostwriter for well-known personal finance columnist Sylvia Porter for decades.

Kobliner writes, “What Ratcliff and I shared was a job. We were both ghostwriters for Sylvia Porter, the first woman­—in fact, the first person—to write about personal finance for middle-class families. Ratcliff died last week at age 84, and The New York Times just ran her fascinating obituary. The piece explains that she started writing for Porter in 1963, before I was even born. Twenty-five years later, I would be lucky enough to be sitting where Ratcliff once did.

“During the time I worked for Porter, she was syndicated in more than 150 newspapers nationwide. My job was to write two of her three columns that were distributed by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, with its New York flagship, the Daily News. Another career coincidence: Ratcliff also had a stint in her youth at Time Inc., where I worked for Money magazine early in my career.

“I often felt it was divine intervention that landed me a gig with Sylvia Porter. (Actually, the way I got the job was a little more down to earth — thanks to my dad’s think-outside-the-box job search advice. You can find that story in the pages of my guide for parents, Make Your Kid a Money Genius (Even If You’re Not).) It set the course for the rest of my working life: I not only learned a lot about money, but I also found a passion for financial literacy that has sustained my career for decades.”

Read more here.