Myril Axelrod Bennett

She was born Myril Jessica Davidson on April 4, 1920, in Weehawken, New Jersey, and was raised in Jersey City.[1][2] Her father was a dentist who had fled the pogroms of Russia, and her mother was the daughter of immigrants.[2] Taking inspiration from her elder brother Bill, she followed his lead and graduated from New York University's journalism program, where she edited the student newspaper.[1] After school, during World War II, she wrote mental health survey reports for her husband, who was in the U.S. Army.[1]

After the war, the couple moved to Stuyvesant Town, where she worked at the left-leaning, ad-free daily newspaper PM working under then-journalist Albert Deutsch and I.F. Stone[2] and later at the newspaper's successor, the New York Star.[1] After both papers folded, she wrote free-lance articles before switching to another male-dominated field, advertising. In 1958, she took a job with Compton Advertising and then moved to Young & Rubicam in 1966 where she served as a vice president.[1] She had a successful career focusing on pitching the qualitative and emotional message in advertisements.[1] She retired in the 1980s although she continued to conduct research for the senior housing industry.[1]

She continued to write (as Myril Axelrod) until her death, serving as a guest columnist for Boston.com's Your Town series.[1]

In 1943, she married Joseph Axelrod who worked as a psychologist in the U.S. Army; they had two children, Joan Axelrod Lehrich, and David Axelrod, before divorcing in 1968 (Joseph later died in 1974).[1] In 1970, she married marketing executive Abner Bennett; he died in 1986.[1]

Bennett died on January 21, 2014, of heart failure in her home in Newton, Massachusetts.[1] She was buried at the United Jewish Center Cemetery in Brookfield Center, Connecticut.[2]