Margaret Frances "Peg" Lynch (November 25, 1916 – July 24, 2015) was an American writer, actress, and creator of the radio and television sitcoms Ethel and Albert, The Couple Next Door, and The Little Things in Life. She created, wrote, starred in, and owned her own sitcom; she retained that ownership throughout her life. Lynch wrote a total of nearly 11,000 scripts for radio and television. Early life Lynch was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. Her father died of the Spanish flu when she was two years old, after which she and her mother moved back to Kasson, Minnesota, where her mother resumed her job as an orthopedic nurse at the Mayo Clinic. Lynch graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1937, majoring in English with an emphasis on writing and dramatics. Radio Lynch's start in radio began at age 15 when working part-time as a receptionist at the Mayo Clinic. She agreed to help out at KROC in Rochester, a radio station belonging to a classmate's father. At KROC she helped with writing copy and interviewing celebrities who were in town (usually to visit the Clinic) including Lou Gehrig, Jeanette MacDonald, Knute Rockne and Ernest Hemingway. Soon after she graduated from college, she landed a job at KATE in Albert Lea, Minnesota, about 40 miles southwest of Rochester. She earned $65 per month as a copywriter. She wrote commercials, a daily half-hour woman's show, a weekly half-hour theater show, a weekly farm news program, and three 10-minute plays and two five-minute sketches per week. Ethel and Albert It was at KATE that Lynch first introduced the husband and wife characters of Ethel and Albert, born as a three-minute "filler" sketch in her woman's show. The sketch was successful and adapted to sell products on the show. Lynch played Ethel and a station announcer played Albert. After four months at KATE, Lynch moved to WCHV in Charlottesville, Virginia, and then on to WTBO in Cumberland, Maryland in 1941, continuing to develop Ethel and Albert as she went, and expanding it at WTBO into a five-times-per-week, 15-minute evening feature. Willis Conover played Albert. In February 1944, Lynch moved to New York City. Within a month, she received an offer from NBC radio to air her show. Lynch refused because it would require her to give up the ownership rights of Ethel and Albert. Shortly after, she got an offer for a spot