Video by Pam Stevenson, Agave Productions Inc., for Historical League
Erma Bombeck was born during the Great Depression, but she was raised in a family that laughed a lot. Her mother entered her in dancing and singing contests from the time she was four. Life changed after her father died. Her mother went to work, and the family lived with Erma’s grandmother. At fourteen, a lecture by journalist Dorothy Thompson planted the seed from which Erma Bombeck’s career developed. High school years combined class work with jobs as a part-time copygirl and typist. In college, YWCA public relations, editing for weekly shoppers and writing advertising copy went hand in hand with her studies at the University of Dayton. She also met and married a young man named Bill Bombeck.
After World War II, the Bombecks moved to Centerville, Ohio, where she continued writing. Erma Bombeck’s first humor columns, titled “Zone 59” earned her three dollars each. She was “discovered” by the Dayton Journal Herald after her employer sent a batch of her columns to Newsday Syndicate. The rest is history, with her column, “At Wit’s End,” appearing three times weekly across America, her stories published in major magazines, and her books selling briskly.
A 1969 speaking engagement brought Erma Bombeck to Phoenix and the family was persuaded to make Arizona their home in June 1971. For eleven years, until 1986, Erma Bombeck could be seen on the nationally televised program, “Good Morning America.” Bill became a high school principal, and both Bombecks were involved in a myriad of local endeavors and charities. Mrs. Bombeck donated the proceeds she received from her book based on a child’s life with cancer to the American Cancer Society. She was the honorary chairperson of Maricopa County’s March of Dimes in 1972. After many years of appearing as both a guest and emcee for the Arizona Kidney Foundation Authors’ Luncheon, she was honored in 1992 with the Foundation’s Gift of Life award.
Honors for her books seem endless. A book authored by Erma Bombeck can be assured of best seller status nearly as soon as it goes into print. In 1989, she received a Lifetime Excalibur Award for her contributions; other honors include those from the Arizona Press Club, a Mark Twain Award, an Ohioana Book Award, national recognition from Theta Sigma Phi, and even being asked to serve as Grand Marshal for both the 1986 Pasadena Rose Bowl Parade and the 1991 Fiesta Bowl Parade in Tempe.
Along the way, Bill and Erma Bombeck have guided their children Betsy, Andy, and Matt to maturity. Their lives have been shared in Mrs. Bombeck’s columns, tongue-in-cheek, brightening the daily lives of millions of readers.
"I will tell you a story. 'Good Morning America,' for all those years, let me pick out what I wanted to do, what I wanted to say and what message I wanted to get across. I said to them, 'I want to do something on the Grand Canyon, something really different.' They said, 'Go do it.' We got the researchers busy and found out there was a blind boy from NAU, Northern Arizona University. He was willing to talk to me about his trip through the Canyon. I thought this was great. I wondered what a blind person saw in the Canyon. I met this young man on the rim of the Canyon. I took his arm and sat on the edge; I mean it was scary. He didn't care, he's blind, he can't see. He didn't know where I was taking him. His feet are dangling over the side. He was a real neat kid. I said to him, 'Tell me what you saw when you went down the Canyon.' I still have the tape of it. It's the most astounding description you've ever heard. How he felt the rocks and the heat coming from them and knew that the sun was so intense on them and felt the little crevices, and hear the birds overhead. He had senses of the Canyon that sighted people never have. I don't think I've ever looked at the Canyon in the same way. It has had a lot of meaning for me." Erma Bombeck oral history, October 1992
