Erma Bombeck, Author

Erma Bombeck's writing was honest, timeless and wickedly humorous. Erma Bombeck was born in Dayton in 1927 and worked there as a journalist right out of high school. She interrupted her career for college and then, after marriage, leaving the work force when her first child was born. Eleven years later, Erma Bombeck began a weekly humor column, focusing on the life of a suburban family. It soon became twice weekly, later three times; by 1968 it was syndicated in 200 newspapers and by the late 1970s in over 800.

For the next 30 years, Erma wrote about being a mother, wife, journalist, and woman. She began giving speeches at Universities and writing books, made up largely from her popular column. During the course of her career, Bombeck published more than 4000 syndicated columns in 900 papers nationwide, wrote 15 best-selling books, and became on of the world's most beloved humorist columns.

In 1991, Erma was diagnosed with breast cancer and checked into the hospital. She underwent a mastectomy shortly thereafter. Two years later, her kidneys began to fail, and Erma began a daily routine of dialysis, which she underwent at home. Erma's doctors informed her she needed a new kidney and was immediately added to the kidney transplant list. After waiting 3 years, she received a kidney transplant on April 4, 1996. However, she died from complications from the transplant a few weeks later.

Erma Bombeck is buried in an unmarked grave in Woodland Cemetery in Dayton. After her death, Erma's body was brought back to her hometown and interred in the family plot. A 29,000 pound rock has become a monument for her grave. It was brought by flat-bed truck from her home in Arizona. It reflects the empathy she had for the Southwest desert and to her years of residency.