Betty Rollin

Betty Rollin (January 3, 1936 – November 7, 2023) was an American journalist and author who was an NBC News correspondent. As a reporter, she won both the DuPont and Emmy awards, and she contributed reports for PBS. She also wrote two memoirs: First, You Cry, about her experiences with breast cancer, and Last Wish, about her mother having terminal cancer and helping her die through assisted suicide.

Background Rollin was born in New York City in 1936. She was a graduate of Fieldston Ethical Culture School and Sarah Lawrence College, where she was a classmate of Yoko Ono, as Ono mentioned on the Dick Cavett Show.

Rollin's first interest was acting; she studied under Sanford Meisner and Lee Strasberg and briefly worked in theatre. to encourage public awareness and to give encouragement to others facing this disease. First, You Cry was made into a television movie starring Mary Tyler Moore as Rollin. published in 1985 and republished in 1998. One critic called it "a document of personal compassion and public importance." The book has been published in 19 countries and was made into a TV movie in 1992 starring Patty Duke as Rollin and Maureen Stapleton as her mother.

After the book was published, Rollin was active in the death with dignity movement, and served on the advisory board of Compassion and Choices.

Personal life and death Rollin lived with her husband, mathematician Harold Edwards, in Manhattan until his death in 2020. They had no children. Rollin's health declined after her husband's death, and she died by assisted suicide at the Pegasos Swiss Association in Basel on November 14, 2023, at the age of 87.

Books I Thee Wed (1961) Mothers Are Funnier Than Children (1964) First, You Cry (1976) Last Wish (1985) Am I Getting Paid for This?: A Romance About Work (1986) Here's the Bright Side: Of Failure, Fear, Cancer, Divorce, and Other Bum Raps (2007)