She was also a novelist and author of The Only Woman In The Room, a memoir of her life as one of the first female show runners and one of the first women in television (released October 2015, Applause publishing).
In fiction, Lakin created the Gladdy Gold Mystery seven-book series (published by Bantam Books), including Getting Old Is Murder, Getting Old Is The Best Revenge, and Getting Old Can Kill You.
She wrote numerous "Movies of the Week" including Women in Chains, and such miniseries as Strong Medicine and Voices of the Heart.
[3] Rita Weisinger was first married to Hank Lakin, who died from leukemia due to exposure to radiation in the Santa Susana SRE Nuclear Reactor meltdown (1959) in 1961.
[3] Rita Lakin wrote 464 episodes, eight movies of the week, and two miniseries, spanning 30 television productions.