Bombeck, Erma, 1927-1996

Erma Louise Bombeck née Fiste February 21, 1927, Bellbrook, Ohio – April 22, 1996, San Francisco, California; In 1942 while still in high school, she began to work at the Dayton Herald as a copygirl, sharing her full-time assignment with a girlfriend. In 1943, for her first journalistic work, Erma interviewed Shirley Temple, who visited Dayton, and the interview became a newspaper feature; enrolled in the University of Dayton; married Bill Bombeck, 1949; as a young housewife she wrote humor colums for the Dayton Shopping News; started writing humor columns full time, 1964, became nationally syndicated in 1967 for column "At Wit's End" By 1978, 900 U.S. newspapers were publishing Bombeck's column; supported ERA in 1970s; wrote several homor books; Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop started in 2000 at the University of Dayton;