Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey (born August 31, 1938 in Dallas, Texas) is an American journalist and playwright. Her first novel A Woman of Independent Means, a surprise best seller, published in 1978, the year she turned forty, was inspired by the life of her grandmother. With the support of her husband, playwright Oliver Hailey, she adapted it for the stage in 1983 as a one-person play starring Barbara Rush. In 1995 it became a six-hour NBC miniseries starring Sally Field. She has subsequently published three more best-selling novels: Life Sentences (1982), Joanna's Husband and David's Wife (1986--which she also adapted for the stage as a two-person play), and Home Free
