Reader response to the breakup of the relationship between Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O'Neal (PEOPLE, March 10) was divided. Several correspondents had nice things to say about Fawcett, but an equal number questioned whether a split between a couple one reader described—somewhat uncharitably—as "a has-been and a never-was" could be worth our attention.
FARRAH & RYAN
Cheers to Farrah Fawcett for wanting to impress some traditional family values on Hollywood. Farrah seemed to be able to provide a needed sense of stability to Ryan O'Neal's unruly clan. Cooking a meal every night and having a set dinnertime for her family spoke volumes. Hopefully Farrah and Ryan can start listening to one another and work things out.
LISA AIMOLA, Quincy, Mass.
Ryan O'Neal steals Farrah Fawcett from his best friend, Lee Majors. Farrah Fawcett is enough of a jerk to leave her husband for his best friend. Where has loyalty and simple respect gone in this world?
VIRGINIA PRITCHETT, Blue Jay, Calif.
There must have been a shortage of news for you to have wasted seven pages on the breakup of Ryan O'Neal and Farrah Fawcett and their 17-year affair. It could have been delivered in a 10-words-or-less sentence.
MARY A. WELLS, Vienna, W.Va.
Who cares?
JUDITHE A. BYRNE, via e-mail
I would much rather see you devote a cover to couples with a relationship that has stood the test of time. DEBRA LEE BENTZ, Gettysburg, Pa.
SARAH L. DELANY
The excerpt about the Delany sisters overwhelmed me with sadness until I realized what great courage it takes for the remaining sister, Sarah, to go on with her life with such a positive attitude. I am one of 11 children and there are only four of us left. My three remaining sisters and I think how awful it will be for the last survivor. Maybe we can rethink our fears and take a lesson from Sarah Delany.
BARBARA BAUMAN, Camarillo, Calif.
DOLLY
Yes, the first animal to be cloned from an adult sheep was indeed exciting to hear about, but I believe that it's only a matter of time and money before someone does it to a human. Two days after the news about Dolly, I held my grandson who was two hours old and born the natural, old-fashioned way. That's excitement you cannot clone!
JOAN MOLNAR, Chalfont, Pa.
Even if we could clone people, what would we do with them? Who would want to live knowing that they were just a science experiment?
AARON TATRO, Lisle, Ill.
I think it was Gandhi who said, "You can judge a society by the way it treats its animals." Dr. Ian Wilmut says, "I believe we are a moral species." Any society that routinely uses animals for medical research and would create "genetically engineered pigs to become organ donors for humans" is not a moral species.
JO A. RANDOLPH, D.V.M.
Oconomowoc, Wis.
This story sounds strange but it's true: Dolly's parents did not court or woo.
So the lab paved the way Via cloned DNA.
She now looks exactly like ewe!
TONY RATNER, Bradenton, Fla.
MELISSA BROOKS
Taking away Melissa Brooks's children is a crime. No one should be able to adopt a person's children when that person still wants to be a parent. The stepmother, Janet, says she is "a staunch Christian." That's how my mother justified taking me away from my father. I never saw him, and at 18, when I went to find him, my mother told me she never wanted to see me again. My father turned out to be a fine human being.
KATE GALE, Granada Hills, Calif.
I have been where Melissa Brooks is. I also wed at 16 and had my child at 18, both for all the wrong reasons. I left my child with his father for the same reasons Melissa left her children: I had nothing—no skills, no money and no understanding of the value of a relationship with my son. I am grateful I had the chance to begin again and prove my devotion to him. Melissa deserves the same. Has anyone asked the children how they feel?
SHAWNEE SCOTT-RYAN, Fairfax, Va.
I cannot believe Melissa Brooks is whining about losing her parental rights. She walked out on her kids, doesn't pay child support and expects her ex-husband—whom she left for another man—just to sit back and do nothing? I wish what happened to her would happen to more parents who walk out on their families.
KAREN MCHALE, Garden Grove, Calif.
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