Peggy Anderson was born on July 14, 1938, in Oak Park, Illinois, and died on January 17, 2016.

He was a bestselling American author and journalist.

She was known for her 1979 work Nurse, which profiled the work of a nurse and sold millions of copies.

Her parents were Catherine Anderson, a nurse, and her husband Wilbert Anderson.

Peggy graduated from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, and then joined the Peace Corps.

When it was in the Peace Corps, she taught English for two years in the early 1960s in Togo.

After her time in the Peace Corps, she worked as a reporter at The Washington Monthly and The Philadelphia Inquirer (from 1969-1973).

Anderson has written three well-known books: The Daughters (1972), about the Daughters of the American Revolution; Nurse (1979); and Children’s Hospital (1985).

The book he wrote called Nurse was a major best-seller.

It was a description of the working life of a nurse, based on a  pseudonymized series of interviews with a 27-year-old nurse named Philadelphia.

Eventually, the book was produced into a movie and a TV series starring Michael Learned, which won an Emmy award.

It was recommended that she title the book “Scar Wars” (playing on the recent popularity of the film “Star Wars”), but Anderson stuck with the less sensationalistic title Nurse.

The nurse in the book was nicknamed “Mary Benjamin” at the time insisted on her anonymity, and “steadfastly protected her identity”.

Peggy Anderson was later identified as Mary Fish and became a life-long friend of Anderson’s.

For that book, Fish was given $2,000 and 5% of profits from the book, for meeting with Anderson for 60 interviews, of two to six hours each.

In his later book (1972) The Daughters “was a critical success and financial flop”, providing her only a $2,500 advance.

And he had two incomplete manuscripts, one about the murder of her father in Chicago, and another about hospice nursing.

Peggy Anderson passed away at 77 yrs old due to lung cancer.