 Salinger was romantically involved with television actress Elaine Joyce for several years in the 1980s . The relationship ended when he met Colleen O 'Neill ( b . June 11 , 1959 ) , a nurse and quiltmaker , whom he married around 1988 . O 'Neill , forty years his junior , once told Margaret Salinger that she and Salinger were trying to have a child . 
