Bombeck, Erma, 1927-1996

Erma Bombeck (b. Feb. 21, 1927, Bellbrook, OH–d. April 22, 1996, San Francisco, CA) was one of the most successful humor writers in the 1960s-1990s and wrote about domestic suburban life. In 1942, while still in high school, she began to work at the Dayton Herald as a copygirl and interviewed Shirley Temple as her first writing assignment in 1942. Later she enrolled in the University of Dayton and married Bill Bombeck in 1949. As a young suburban housewife she wrote humor columns for the Dayton Shopping News. By 1964, Bombeck started writing humor columns full time, and her column "At Wit's End" was nationally syndicated in 1967; by 1978, 900 U.S. newspapers were publishing Bombeck's column. Additionally she wrote several best selling humor books and was a vocal supporter for the Equal Rights Amendment in 1978.