Joyce Rebeta-Burditt, a bestselling author who went on to create the long-running Dick Van Dyke drama Diagnosis Murder, died in Los Angeles on June 2.
She was 83.Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Rebeta-Burditt authored the ground-breaking roman a clef, The Cracker Factor, about a housewife who enters a mental hospital to treat her alcoholism.
The 1977 Macmillan book became a New York Times bestseller and was made into a TV movie of the same name starring Natalie Wood.
The lead character, Cassie Barrett, was based on Rebeta-Burditt’s early life as a young married raising three small children.“I think being a housewife is the most underrated job in the world.
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