By JOHN SEEWER
Associated Press Writer

TOLEDO, Ohio, May 29, 2002 (AP) -- Mildred Wirt Benson, a newspaperwoman who originated the popular children's mystery series about a young sleuth named Nancy Drew, has died. She was 96.

Benson became ill Tuesday at The Blade, where she wrote a weekly column for the newspaper about daily life and older folks. She was taken to Toledo Hospital, where she died, the hospital said.

Benson was a journalist for 58 years and wrote more than 130 books, including the Penny Parker mystery series. She also penned countless short stories, but is best known for creating Nancy Drew, who captivated generations of girls.

The series is still in print and has sold over 200 million books in 17 languages. Dozens of ghost writers followed Benson, also writing under the name Carolyn Keene.

Nancy Drew buffs have said Benson's books allowed girls and young women to imagine anything could be possible at a time when females struggled for any sense of equality.

``I always knew the series would be successful,' Benson said in a December interview with The Associated Press. ``I just never expected it to be the blockbuster that it has been. I'm glad that I had that much influence on people.'

Benson, known as Millie to friends and fans, wrote 23 of the 30 original Nancy Drew stories using the Carolyn Keene pseudonym. She was paid $125 per book and never collected royalties from the books, movies and board games.

She was bound by an agreement with the publisher not to publicly reveal her identity as the series author, but it became known in 1980 when she testified in a court case involving Nancy Drew's publisher.

Harriet Adams, daughter of the original publisher Edward Stratemeyer, took over the series and directed writers to make the stories shorter and faster-paced in the 1950s. Adams died in 1982, and the syndicate sold Nancy Drew to Simon & Schuster.

Benson began writing in Ladora, Iowa, where she was born July 10, 1905, to Lillian and Dr. J.L. Augustine.

``I always wanted to be a writer from the time I could walk,' she said. ``I had no other thought except that I wanted to write.'

She wrote children's stories when she was in grade school and won her first writing award at 14.

In a way, she was a lot like the character she made famous _ independent and adventurous.

She loved swimming and diving, and rememberd jumping from bridges into the Iowa River during her college days. She played golf until just a few years ago and learned to fly at age 59 after the death of her second husband. She traveled around the world, flying to archaeological digs in Central America.

Benson was the first person to receive a master's degree in journalism at the University of Iowa in 1927, according to the school.

She was introduced to journalism through her first husband, Asa Wirt, who worked with The Associated Press. In 1944, Benson began working at the former Toledo Times and later at The Blade.

She covered city hall, federal and courthouse beats and wrote a weekly column in The Blade from 1990 until January, when she reluctantly retired.

Despite failing eyesight and diminished hearing, she continued authoring a monthly column after retirement called ``Millie Benson's Notebook.'

``She was gutsy and daring, a living embodiment of her Nancy Drew heroine,' said John Robinson Block, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Blade.

The day after she was diagnosed with lung cancer in June 1997, she was back at her desk working on her next column.

Benson recalled her lifelong love of books and libraries in her final column published in The Blade on Wednesday.

``I consider it an honor to have been born near the turn of the 20th century, at about the time when public libraries were first coming into popular use,' she wrote.

Wirt died in 1947. In 1950, she married George Benson, editor of The Toledo Times, who died in 1959.

Benson is survived by her daughter, Peggy Wirt, of Logansport, Ind.