NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Francine Pascal, a onetime soap opera writer whose 鈥淪weet Valley High鈥� and the ongoing adventures of twins Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield and other teens captivated millions of young readers, has died at age 92.
Pascal died Sunday, her publisher, Penguin Random House, said. It did not immediately have additional information Tuesday.
Starting in 1983, Francine Pascal oversaw the completion of more than 150 鈥淪weet Valley High鈥� stories with the help of others. They were set in an imaginary Los Angeles suburb, one of 鈥済ently rolling hills鈥� and a 鈥渇antastic white sand beach鈥� nearby. In best sellers such as 鈥淒ouble Love,鈥� 鈥淧ower Play鈥� and 鈥淎ll Night Long,鈥� the Wakefield girls and their schoolmates navigate dating, family conflicts, sibling rivalries, more troubling themes such as race, divorce and mortality and even vampires and werewolves.
"Sweet Valley is the essence of high school," Pascal told People magazine in 1988. 鈥淚t鈥檚 that moment before reality hits, when you really do believe in the romantic values 鈥� sacrifice, love, loyalty, friendship 鈥� before you get jaded and slip off into adulthood.鈥�
Her books sold more than 200 million copies, and included 鈥淪weet Valley鈥� spinoffs and sequels. After the initial novels took off, Pascal brought in outside writers, providing them general outlines and a 鈥渂ible鈥� of the books' characters.
鈥淚t was mostly very young, new writers,鈥� she told Entertainment Weekly in 2019. 鈥淭he story outlines weren鈥檛 chapter by chapter, more like acts: You get from here to here in the first quarter, then you have to get from here to here. Don鈥檛 forget, they already had the bible, where I had written deeply into the lives of the twins and their backgrounds. With the characters, you knew what they liked, you knew what the walls in their room (looked like), every single thing about them.鈥�
Born Francine Paula Rubin, Pascal was a New York City native who studied journalism at New York University, wrote for such magazines as Cosmopolitan and Ladies' Home Journal and, with second husband John Pascal, found work with the soap opera 鈥淭he Young Marrieds.鈥� When Francine Pascal began thinking of creating her own series, she took a friend's advice and developed what became the Sweet Valley books.
The concept: 鈥淒allas鈥� for young people. The main characters: twin sisters, one mischievous (Jessica), the other more sensible (Elizabeth).
鈥淭here are a lot of twins in my life,鈥� she told Entertainment Weekly. 鈥淢y sister-in-law was a twin. People are always fascinated by twins. You鈥檒l never be alone.鈥�
Pascal and her first husband, Jerome Offenberg, divorced in 1963. They had three daughters, one of whom, Jamie, died in 2008. John Pascal died in 1981.
The Associated Press
