Alexandra Ripley
Alexandra Ripley, née Braid (January 8, 1934 – January 10, 2004) was an American writer best known as the author of Scarlett (1991), written as a sequel to Gone with the Wind. Her first novel was Who's the Lady in the President's Bed? (1972). Charleston (1981), her first historical novel, was a bestseller, as were her next books On Leaving Charleston (1984), The Time Returns (1985), and New Orleans Legacy (1987). She attended the elite Ashley Hall, in Charleston, South Carolina, and Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. Ripley was thrice wed; to Leonard Ripley, an early partner and recording engineer at Elektra Records, Thomas Garlock, and John Graham (1926-2007), a former professor at The University of Virginia, from whom she was separated at the time of her death. She died in Richmond, Virginia, and is survived by two daughters from her first marriage to Leonard Ripley, a son in law and granddaughter, Alexandra Elizabeth.