Nora Ephron’s Can Do Attitude

Post #35 – Rosie’s Daughters: The “First Woman To” Generation Tells Its Story by Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett

By now you know the news. Nora Ephron, a Rosie’s Daughter, died last week (June 26, 2012) at the age of 71. Born just a few months before Pearl Harbor, Ephron might be called an iconic member of the “First Woman To” Generation, those women born between 1940 and 1945. During her life, she exemplified Rosie the Riveter’s Can-Do attitude. She was a journalist turned screenwriter (she told Charlie Rose that she knew she had to become a screenwriter if she wanted to support herself as a writer), filmmaker, director, producer, novelist, memoirist, and blogger. And these were just her professional roles as she was also a wife, mother and dear friend to many.

Ephron is probably well-known to you for her romantic comedies — When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail as well as Julie and Julia, her final film. But she also wrote Silkwood, Heartburn, Cookie, My Blue Heaven, This Is My Life, Mixed Nuts, Michael, Strike! and several more.

Women in Hollywood have had a difficult time breaking into the upper ranks as screenwriters, directors and producer. Like Rosie the Riveter, Nora Ephron didn’t take “no” for an answer.

She was diagnosed with leukemia in 2006 but told only her family. She was not a complainer and continued her Can-Do attitude right to the end.

Nora Ephron will be missed.