Erma Bombeck

Often called one of the greatest humorists America has produced in the last 50 years, Erma Bombeck was a product of the American midwest. A Dayton, Ohio native, Erma was only thirteen years old when she wrote her first newspaper column, which appeared in the Emerson Junior High School Owl. While her childhood was hard -- her father died when she was nine -- Erma prevailed. Though her mother had hopes of turning her daughter, a gifted singer and dancer, into "the next Shirley Temple," Erma knew early on that she would become a writer.  Erma Bombeck spent the next twenty-seven years writing first newspaper columns and then books that touched the lives and hearts of not only American women, but an international audience that included men and children as well.