Harlan Ellison is writing Julie's obituary for the New York Times. "Hardest thing I've ever written," said Harlan, when he told me this morning.
Julie was a fan, and agent, an editor. By the time I met him, about seventeen years ago, he'd just retired, age 72, as an active editor, and DC Comics had appointed him their "goodwill ambassador". I liked him, and he liked me, even though I was by no stretch of the imagination a gorgeous young woman, and we'd make time to find each other and talk, at conventions. Julie was all about stories, and he had known everyone. (He once came to a convention with photographs of Eric Frank Russell, solely in order to find me and say "You know who this is?", so I could say "No," and he could tell me Eric Frank Russell stories.)
His passing really is the end of an era.
Go read what Mark Evanier has to say, for he says it all much better than I could: http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2004_02_08.html#003668