I admired Jean Carroll since I was a little girl. I'd see her on The Ed Sullivan Show, and then I used to actually put on shows of my own and do her jokes. She had a cocktail dress and mink; I had my mother's slip. So many women were influenced by Jean, the barrier-breaking comedian who died Jan. 1 at 98. With her breezy style, she was much more subversive than anyone probably was aware of at the time. When stand-up comics were almost universally men, she leveled the playing field with lines like "I'll never forget the first time...
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