Phyllis Pearsall; Created London A-Z Street Atlas

Phyllis Pearsall, 89, creator of the internationally popular London A-Z street atlas. Published in 1936, her book was the first comprehensive indexed guide to that city’s snaking maze of 23,000 main thoroughfares, streets, roads and back alleys. To prepare her atlas, Pearsall walked every one of them. After many editions over the years, her atlas remains the bible not only for tourists but for cabdrivers, delivery crews and baffled residents. Born Phyllis Gross, she left school at 14 to help support her family. She taught in France and wrote and painted in Paris. Back in England by 1926, she married then later divorced artist Richard Pearsall, retaining his surname. The daughter of a map maker, she said she was inspired to create her atlas when she got lost in London using a conventional, outdated map. On Wednesday in Shoreham, England.