a biography of the day-erma bombeck (humourist)
Erma Bombeck
Born Erma Louise Fiste
February 21, 1927
Bellbrook, Ohio, U.S.
Died April 22, 1996 (aged 69)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Occupation Humorist, syndicated columnist, writer
Nationality American
Citizenship United States
Education University of Dayton
Period 1965 to 1996
Spouse(s) Bill Bombeck
Children Betsy, Andrew, Matthew
Erma Louise Bombeck, née Fiste (February 21, 1927 – April 22, 1996) was an American humorist who achieved great popularity for her newspaper column that described suburban home life from the mid-1960s until the late 1990s. Bombeck also published 15 books, most of which became bestsellers. From 1965 to 1996, Erma Bombeck wrote over 4,000 newspaper columns chronicling the ordinary life of a midwestern suburban housewife with broad, and sometimes eloquent humor. By the 1970s, her columns were read, twice weekly, by 30 million readers of the 900 newspapers of the U.S. and Canada.[citation needed]
Erma Fiste was born in Bellbrook, Ohio, to a working-class family, and was raised in Dayton. Her father, Cassius Fiste, was the city crane operator; her mother's name was also Erma. Young Erma lived with her elder paternal half-sister, Thelma. She began elementary school one year earlier than usual for her age, in 1932, and became an excellent student and an avid reader. She particularly enjoyed the popular humor writers of the time. After Erma's father died in 1936, she moved, with her mother, into her grandmother's home. In 1938 her mother remarried, to Albert Harris (a moving van owner). Erma practiced tap dance and singing, and was hired by a local radio for a children's revue for eight years.[citation needed]
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Erma later enrolled in the University of Dayton, a Catholic college. She lived in her family home and worked at Rike's Store, a department store, where she wrote humorous material for the company newsletter. In addition, she worked two part-time jobs - a termite control accountant at an advertising agency[clarification needed] and as a public relations person at the local YMCA.[1] While in college, her English professor, Bro. Tom Price, commented to Erma about her great prospects as a writer, and she began to write for the university student publication, The Exponent. She graduated in 1949 with a degree in English, and became a lifelong active contact for the University — helping financially and participating personally — and became a lifetime trustee of the institution in 1987. In 1949, she converted to Catholicism, from the United Brethren church, and married Bill Bombeck, a former fellow student of the University of Dayton, who was a veteran of the World War II Korean front. His subsequent profession would be that of educator and school supervisor. Bombeck remained active in the church the rest of her life.[citation needed]
In 1964 Erma Bombeck resumed her writing career for the local Kettering-Oakwood Times, with weekly columns which yielded $3 each. She wrote in her small bedroom. In 1965 the Dayton Journal Herald requested new humorous columns as well, and Bombeck agreed to write two weekly 450-word columns for $50. After three weeks, the articles went into national syndication through the Newsday Newspaper Syndicate, into 36 major U.S. newspapers, with three weekly columns under the title "At Wit's End".
Bombeck quickly became a popular humorist nationwide. Beginning in 1966, she began doing lectures for a $15,000 fee in the various cities where her columns appeared. In 1967, her newspaper columns were compiled and published by Doubleday, under the title of At Wit's End. And after a humorous appearance on Arthur Godfrey's radio show, she became a regular radio guest on the show.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erma_Bombeck