Bombeck, Erma Louise

▪ 1997

      U.S. humorist (b. Feb. 21, 1927, Dayton, Ohio—d. April 22, 1996, San Francisco, Calif.), turned her views of daily life in the suburbs into satirical newspaper columns and such best-selling books as I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression (1973); The Grass Is Always Greener over the Septic Tank (1976), which was adapted (1978) into a television film; and If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits? (1978). The self-deprecating humour she employed in accounts of everyday crises of home and family struck a chord of familiarity among readers, who saw their lives mirrored in the situations she described. Bombeck began writing columns when she was in junior high school. She worked at the Dayton Journal Herald while she was in school and after graduation (1949) from the University of Dayton. She left the paper in 1953 to start a family, but later, with three children in school, she felt "too old for a paper route, too young for Social Security and too tired for an affair." She persuaded the editor of a suburban weekly to let her produce a column. The success of "At Wit's End" drew the attention of the Journal Herald's editor, who hired her to write three columns a week. A short time later her columns were syndicated and eventually appeared in more than 900 newspapers. Bombeck also was a contributor to a number of magazines, including Good Housekeeping, Redbook, and McCall's; created, wrote, and produced a television series, "Maggie" (1981); and appeared (1975-86) on the "Good Morning America" television program. She underwent a mastectomy in 1992, and shortly afterward her kidneys began to fail. She underwent dialysis and was placed on waiting lists for a transplant, but though a donor match was found, she died of complications after the surgery.

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