Carol Saline, award-winning writer, best-selling author, and popular public speaker, has died at 86
She cowrote “Sisters,” “Mothers & Daughters,” and “Best Friends” in the 1990s with former Inquirer photographer Sharon J. Wohlmuth. All three books landed on everyone’s bestseller list.
Carol Saline, 86, of Philadelphia, award-winning longtime senior writer at Philadelphia Magazine, best-selling author of Sisters, Mothers & Daughters, and Best Friends, popular public speaker, prolific broadcaster, volunteer, and founder of Saline Solutions, died Saturday, Aug. 30, of acute myeloid leukemia at her home.
Born in Philadelphia and reared in Camden, Ms. Saline spent 30 years as a featured writer at Philadelphia Magazine. From 1974 to 2004, she wrote in-depth profiles on Luciano Pavarotti and Beverly Sills, investigative pieces on mental illness and incest, and thousands of detailed stories about healthcare, education, technology, literacy, prison, housing, crime, cooking, fashion. You name it.
She earned two National Magazine Awards from the American Society of Magazine Editors and other honors from the Association for Women in Communications, International Literacy Association, National Press Club, and other groups. She was known for probing, often personal interviews, and said in June that her main motivation in journalism was to “make a difference in people’s lives.”
“I like to call myself an intellectual dilettante, because my journalism leads me to take minicourses in everything that’s out there,” she told The Inquirer in 1984. “There is an incredible variation in my life.”
She worked briefly for a local weekly newspaper and then for nearly two years at Philadelphia Magazine after graduating from college in 1961. She went freelance in the late 1960s and early ‘70s to rear her daughter, Sharon Saline, and son, Matthew, in Cherry Hill.
For a decade, between PTA meetings, Girl Scouts events, and Saturday soccer games, she sold stories of all kinds to The Inquirer, Reader’s Digest, Family Circle, Redbook, and other publications. “Even then I always said I was a journalist, not a housewife,” she told The Inquirer in 1984.
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She went on to write or cowrite eight books, three of which, Sisters, Mothers & Daughters, and Best Friends, were published in the 1990s with former Inquirer photographer Sharon J. Wohlmuth. All three landed on everyone’s bestseller list.
On TV, she hosted a cooking show and a talk show, was a panelist on a local public affairs program, and guested on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Inside Edition, Good Morning America, and other national shows. On radio, she hosted the Carol Saline Show on WDVT-AM.
She founded Saline Solutions in 2009 and produced more freelance stories and videos, and expanded her public speaking schedule. Her website is www.carolsaline.com.
Ms. Saline volunteered as a telephone counselor and mentor at an educational nonprofit. She was a member of the Mayor’s Commission on Literacy and served on boards at the Philadelphia Film Society, Philadelphia Theater Co., Planned Parenthood of Camden County, and other organizations.
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The Montgomery County Women’s Center, Domestic Abuse Project of Delaware County, Hadassah, and other groups recognized her community service. Friends called her an “icon,” “legend,” and ”class act” in online tributes. One friend said: “She was an incredible force.”
Carol Sue Auerbach was born May 17, 1939, in Philadelphia. She thought her birthday was May 19 for years, she said, and discovered later that was wrong. So she celebrated on both days for a while.
She grew up with a sister, Patsy, in Camden, put on theatrical skits with friends in her garage, and graduated as co-valedictorian at Camden High School. She earned a bachelor’s degree with honors in English and journalism at Syracuse University in New York.
She married Jack Saline, with whom she had daughter Sharon and son Matthew. After a divorce, she married Paul Rathblott in 2005, and they attended galas, traveled the world together, and lived in Philadelphia.
She and her husband, neighbors in Camden as children, reconnected through mutual friends decades later. “It was a love affair,” he said. “I got her. I understood her values.” In June, she said: “He is the love of my life.”
Ms. Saline liked to throw parties, entertain, and cook. She belonged to a book club for 30 years and championed exercise and emotional honesty as keys to healthy living.
She also spoke Italian, was in the Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society, and sold handmade vintage button jewelry. One of her most popular public talks was called “Don’t Be Waiting at the Bus Station When Your Train Comes In.”
In June, she wrote to The Inquirer saying, “I am contacting you because I am entering hospice care and will likely die in the next few weeks. … I wanted you to know me, not only my accomplishments but who I am as a person.
“I want to go out,” she ended her email, “with a glass of Champagne in one hand, a balloon in the other, singing (off key) ‘Whoopee! It’s been a great ride!’”
Her husband said: “She was not afraid. She lived as fully as possible and was grateful until the very end.”
In addition to her husband and children, Ms. Saline is survived by four grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, her former husband, and other relatives. Her sister died earlier.
Visitation with the family is to be at 10 a.m., Wednesday, Sept. 3, at Laurel Hill West Cemetery, 225 Belmont Ave., Bala Cynwyd, Pa. 19004. A service and celebration of her life are to follow.
Donations in her name may be made to Beyond Literacy, 2204 South St., No. 333, Philadelphia, Pa. 19146; and the Philadelphia Theater Co., 215 S. Broad St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19107.