Annie Louise Brown Leslie

Annie Leslie (born Annie Louise Brown; December 11, 1870 – October 7, 1948) was an American newspaper columnist. She was among the first American advice columnists, writing the column "Experience" for The Detroit News under the pen name Nancy Brown from 1917 to 1942. Her column was very successful and led to the crowdfunding of a series of community projects, including the reforesting of of clearcut forest in Northern Michigan during the Great Depression. Beginning in 1934, she hosted an annual sunrise religious gathering at Belle Isle that was called Sunday Service. The gatherings led to a fundraising campaign that resulted in the building of the Nancy Brown Peace Carillon. Brown graduated from Mount Holyoke College, worked for around 10 years as a schoolteacher, and was briefly the Pittsburgh Dispatchs drama editor.

Early life and education Annie Louise Brown was born on December 11, 1870, (Some sources give 1869 as her year of birth.)

Career Following her graduation from Mount Holyoke, Brown was a schoolteacher for around 10 years, in Rockville, Connecticut, White River Junction, Vermont, and Mount Clemens, Michigan. She was among the first advice columnists in the United States, using the nom de plume "Nancy Brown". She later used "Mrs. J. E. Leslie", her married name. In her column, she fielded a wide variety of questions from readers, addressing social and moral issues, financial concerns, marital problems, grief, and unemployment. The readers were given pseudonyms and wrote in with questions about no-budget weddings, canning dandelion greens, and hairstyles. The readership came to be known as the "Experience Column Family".

Brown tended to be conservative in her viewpoints, upholding the institution of marriage. Responding to the subject of a teenage girl and kissing, she wrote that "the right kind of girl does not allow promiscuous kissing. The right kind of girl, with a clean, little girl mind, such as she should have at that age is not always thinking of kissing."

Brown continued writing the column and did not reveal her identity to the public until 1940. Her final column was published on January 8, 1942.

Brown became ill and was hospitalized in July 1948. She is buried at Oakview Cemetery in Royal Oak.

Brown's collected columns were published in eight books by The Detroit News, beginning in 1932. The Annie Louise "Nancy" Brown Papers are held in the Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections Repository.