Biography for
Erma Bombeck

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Date of Birth

21 February 1927, Dayton, Ohio, USA

Date of Death

22 April 1996, San Francisco, California, USA (after surgery)

Birth Name

Erma Louise Fiste

Mini Biography

Often called one of the greatest humorists America has produced in the last 50 years, Erma Bombeck was a product of the American midwest. A journalist at the Dayton Herald in Ohio for four years, she quit to raise a family. Bored as a housewife, she began to write humorous columns for a local newspaper. Her old employer, the Dayton Herald, then hired her to write a regular column, and soon the columns became syndicated. In addition to these writings, and the several collections in book form of her stories, she was a correspondent on the ABC news show "Good Morning, America". In 1971 she moved with her family to Paradise Valley, Arizona. She long had an interest in cancer research, and was active in raising money for treatment of children with cancer. In Houston Texas in 1992 she received the Cancer League's "Laughter is the Best Medicine" award; five months later she herself was diagnosed with cancer. She survived breast cancer and mastectomy, but kept secret the fact that she had been diagnosed with adult polycystic kidney disease in 1991, enduring daily dialysis. She went public with her condition in 1993. On a waiting list for transplant for years, one kidney had to be removed in the past year for pain, and the remaining one ceased to function. On April 3 1996 she received a kidney transplant. Complications of the operation were the cause of her death.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Bruce Cameron

Spouse

William Bombeck

(August 1949 - 22 April 1996) (her death) 3 children

Trivia

Born at 4:40am-EST

Her father also suffered from polycystic disease, and died when she was 9.

The $1.5 million advance fee and all proceeds from her book "I Want to Grow Up, I Want to Grow Hair, I Want to go to Boise" was donated to cancer research.

Dubbed by Life Magazine "the Socrates of the ironing board".

Mother of Michael Bombeck.

Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 53-54. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Personal Quotes

"Dreams have but one owner at a time. That is why dreamers are lonely."

"I once told a graduation class that fame is Madonna; success is Helen Keller. Know the difference."

"Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died."

"The Rose Bowl is the only bowl I've seen that I didn't have to clean."

"Never lend your car to anyone to whom you have given birth."

"If a man watches three football games in a row, he should be declared legally dead."

"Guilt is the gift that keeps on giving."

"The only reason I would take up jogging is so that I could hear heavy breathing again."

"I do not participate in any sport that has ambulances at the bottom of the hill."

When you start looking like your passport photo, it's time to go home.

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