A dear friend, Frances Kroll Ring, has died at 99. She was a wonderful editor and a teacher at USC Annenberg in the mid-1980s.

Frances not only taught at USC Annenberg for many years, but also was editor of "The Journalist," a magazine featuring School of Journalism faculty publications. She was one of the finest editors around and edited the magazine with a gentle touch, but a firm hand.  She made all of us better writers.

Frances was editor of Westways Magazine for the Automobile Club and was responsible for bringing to the magazine some of the country's best writers including Norman Corwin, who wrote a regular column.

But she was best known for being F. Scott Fitzgerald's secretary and typist in his final years. Her memoir was made into a movie with Frances being played by Neve Campbell. We'll miss her. 

Read the Los Angeles Times obituary.