WELLS, Dee (Alberta) 1925-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born March 19, 1925, in Providence, RI; died July 24, 2003. Journalist and author. An expatriate newspaper columnist in England, Wells was known as a socialite who also wrote a bestselling, semiautobiographical novel titled Jane. Born to a well-to-do New England family named Chapman, she joined the Canadian Women's Army when World War II began, purportedly because she liked the uniforms. After the war she moved to Paris, briefly attended the Sorbonne, and found a job at the U.S. Embassy. There she married diplomat Al Wells and together they had a daughter before the marriage ended two years later. After her divorce she moved to London to find work on Fleet Street. Attending parties and dazzling people with her glamour, wit, and charm, she made many friends and press connections. She became a contributor to the Manchester Guardian the New York Times, and the Sun, for which she wrote the column "Dee Wells Says" during the 1960s. She also was hired as book editor for the Sunday Express. While working as a journalist she met and married philosopher Sir A. J. Ayer, whom she later divorced only to remarry him again a few years before his death. Wells gained fame, too, as a television star on the talk show Three after Six, and as the author of the 1974 novel Jane, which sold two million copies and was loosely based on her life.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Daily Telegraph (London, England), July 12, 2003.

Guardian (London, England), July 24, 2003, p. 27.

Times (London, England), July 9, 2003, p. 33.