Irene Kampen

Irene Kampen (April 18, 1922, in Brooklyn, New York – February 1, 1998, in Oceanside, California) was an American newspaperwoman and writer who wrote several books about events in her life. Her first book, Life Without George, was the basis for the television series The Lucy Show (1962–1968).

Biography Born Irene Trepel in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Great Neck, New York, she graduated from Great Neck High School. Kampen attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison before becoming a copy girl at the newspaper, New York Journal American, in 1943. She soon married Owen Kampen, an active-duty World War II pilot with the United States Army Air Forces. She went on to work at several weekly newspapers, becoming a reporter for the Levittown Tribune when the family moved to Levittown, New York, in 1948. a television series that ran from 1962 to 1968 and starred Lucille Ball, who had also experienced divorce, from Desi Arnaz, just a few months before Kampen's book was published. Producers re-wrote Ball's character, Lucille Carmichael, as a widow, but the show portrayed Vivian Vance's character, Vivian Bagley, as a divorcée.

Kampen's daughter, Christine Guthrie, was an eminent scientist who demonstrated the function of small RNAs.

Kampen lived in Connecticut until 1988, when she moved to California. She died February 1, 1998, of breast cancer at the age of 75.

Select bibliography Kampen's published books include:

Life Without George (1961) We That Are Left (1963) Europe Without George (1965) Last Year At Sugarbush (1966) Here Comes The Bride, There Goes Mother (1967) Due to Lack of Interest, Tomorrow Has Been Canceled (1969) Are You Carrying Any Gold Or Living Relatives? (1970) Nobody Calls At This Hour Just To Say Hello (1975) Fear Without Childbirth (1978)