The Beloved Judy Blume

Judy Blume was born Judith Marsha Sussman in 1938 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, to a middle-class Jewish family. Despite a relatively normal upbringing with a dentist father and homemaker mother, young Judy struggled with significant anxiety. She worried constantly about her father dying after several uncles passed away young from heart attacks, developing obsessive-compulsive behaviors like making deals with God and ritual doorknob turning. Her creative imagination was evident early on—she created elaborate backstories for her dolls and even kept notebooks tracking the progress of imaginary piano students she pretended to teach.

• Born February 2, 1938 in Elizabeth, New Jersey to a middle-class Jewish family
• Her father was her confidant throughout childhood, while her mother gave her the gift of loving to read
• Developed anxiety and OCD behaviors worrying about her father dying after uncles died young from heart attacks
• Created elaborate imaginary worlds, keeping notebooks to track progress of imaginary piano students
• Separated from her father for two years when family moved to Miami Beach for her brother's health

In a shocking series of events that would later influence her writing, young Judy Blume experienced three separate plane crashes near her Elizabeth, New Jersey home over just 58 days. These crashes from Newark Airport killed 100 people total, including 11 neighbors and townspeople. The trauma was so significant that Newark Airport closed for a year to rebuild runways that were no longer pointed at Elizabeth. This real-life experience would later become material for one of her novels about a family affected by similar tragedy.

• Three plane crashes occurred near her home in Elizabeth, NJ over 58 days
• 100 people died total, including 11 neighbors and friends from Elizabeth
• Newark Airport closed for a year to rebuild runways away from Elizabeth
• She later wrote about this experience in a novel about a family affected by plane crashes