Today is the 96th birthday of the writer Erma Bombeck. She once said (or wrote) “He who laughs … lasts.” It may be the hardest piece of advice that anyone wants to hear, but it has to be true. The world is a better place because she was in it and still feels the loss that she has left.
NAME: Erma Bombeck
OCCUPATION: Television Personality, Journalist
BIRTH DATE: February 21, 1927
DEATH DATE: April 22, 1996
EDUCATION: University of Dayton
PLACE OF BIRTH: Dayton, Ohio
PLACE OF DEATH: San Francisco, California
ORIGINALLY: Erma Louise Fiste
REMAINS: Buried, Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum, Dayton, OH
Father: (crane operator)
Sister: Thelma (half sister)
Husband: Bill Bombeck (m. Aug-1949)
Daughter: Betsy (adopted 1953)
Son: Andrew (b. 1955)
Son: Matthew (b. 1958)
BEST KNOWN FOR: Humorist, writer, columnist and journalist Erma Bombeck found the humor in the everyday experiences of being a wife and mother and shared it with her readers.
Humorist, writer, columnist, journalist Erma Louise Fiste was born on February 21, 1927, in Dayton, Ohio. Erma Bombeck found the humor in the everyday experiences of being a wife and mother and shared it with her readers. But her early days were no laughing matter. Bombeck lost her father at the age of nine and her mother went to work to support them.
In junior high school, Erma Bombeck showed early signs of her future work, writing a humor column for her school’s paper. She worked for the Dayton Herald (which later became the Journal-Herald) as a copygirl as a teenager and got her first article published while she was still in high school. After graduating in 1944, she joined the publication’s writing staff and saved money for college. Bombeck graduated from the University of Dayton in 1949 and returned to the Journal-Herald. That same year, she married Bill Bombeck. Around this time, she also started writing for the paper’s women’s section.
The Bombecks started a family in 1953 when they adopted a daughter, Betsy. Bombeck stopped working briefly, but soon returned to writing. She found much inspiration in her roles as mother and wife. The Bombeck family continued to grow during the 1950s with the addition of two sons; Andrew in 1955 and Matthew in 1958.
Already known for her keen wit and humorous observations, Bombeck’s career as a humorist really began to take off in the mid-1960s. Her humor column, which first appeared in the Kettering-Oakwood Times, eventually went national through a newspaper syndicate. Initially her work appeared in a few dozen papers, but that number grew to hundreds over the next few years. Entitled “At Wit”, her column found humor in some of the headaches associated with motherhood and family life and developed quite a following. She gave voice to the nation’s many suburban housewives while making them laugh and even cry at the same time.
In addition to her column, Bombeck wrote for magazines such as Good Housekeeping, Reader’s Digest, Redbook and McCall’s. She also authored several popular books, including such best sellers as The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank (1976) and If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits? (1978). The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank was later turned into a television movie starring Carol Burnett and Charles Grodin.
Beginning in the mid-1970s, Bombeck also became a television personality, appearing on Good Morning America for more than a decade. She also tried her hand at creating a television series. She lived in Los Angeles for a time while working the sitcom Maggie. The show’s family was based on her own, and she wrote several of the episodes. Bombeck was also an executive producer on the series. Despite Bombeck’s popularity, the show failed to catch on with television audiences and was canceled after eight weeks on the air.
Bombeck also had a very serious side too. She was a vocal advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment for women and served on the President’s National Advisory Committee for Women in the late 1970s. In the 1980s, Bombeck tackled a very difficult subject; childhood cancer, with her book I Want to Grow Hair, I Want to Grow Up, I Want to Go to Boise (1989). She visited a camp for children with cancer and spent a lot of time with families with children fighting cancer as part of writing the book. Like her other work, it found the humor in a challenging situation while making some poignant observations.
In the 1990s, Bombeck faced her own battle with cancer. In 1992, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a mastectomy. Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of her health problems. After her cancer treatment, her kidneys began to shut down because of a disorder known as polycystic kidney disease. In 1996, Bombeck received a kidney transplant at the San Francisco Medical Center.
Erma Bombeck died from medical complications related to her transplant on April 22, 1996, in San Francisco, California.
TELEVISION
Good Morning America (1975-86)
Author of books:
I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression (1970, humor)
The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank (1976, humor)
At Wit’s End (1977, humor)
Aunt Erma’s Cope Book: How to Get From Monday to Friday in 12 Days (1979, humor)
If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries: What am I doing in the Pits? (1981, humor)
Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession (1983, humor)
Mud Pies and Silver Spoons: A Cookbook (1985, cooking)
Family: The Ties That Bind… and Gag! (1987, humor)
The Best of Bombeck (1987, humor)
Just Wait Till You Have Children of Your Own! (1988, humor)
I Want to Grow Hair, I Want to Grow Up, I Want to Go to Boise (1989, humor)
When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It’s Time to Go Home (1991, humor)
A Marriage Made in Heaven or Too Tired for an Affair (1993, humor)
All I Know About Animal Behavior I Learned in Loehmann’s Dressing Room (1995, humor)
Forever, Erma: Best-Loved Writing from America’s Favorite Humorist (1996, humor)
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