Karin Seager Cockram

“What do Phil Donahue, Ohio, the Tournament of Roses Parade, Zsa Zsa Gabor’s bed, Shirley Temple, the ERA, Eleanor Roosevelt’s International Research Fellowship, and Phoenix, Arizona have in common?”

Thus began Mrs. Karin Seager Cockram’s Shakespeare Club report on the humorist Erma Bombeck, presented to fifteen members at the Nov 12 virtual meeting of the Fredonia Shakespeare Club. After a brief introduction to her own interest in Erma Bombeck, which began the first time she remembers hearing her mother laugh out loud – while reading “If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits?” – Mrs. Cockram proceeded to share her research on Erma Bombeck’s life beginning with the Ohio connection and ending 8 years after Mrs. Bombeck’s death in 1996.

The paper was designed to present current events of a specific year during each decade of Mrs. Bombeck’s life which aligned with some particularly special or interesting event that occurred in the life of this amazing woman that same year. For example, “In 1927, the Holland Tunnel opened, Charles Lindbergh flew the Spirit of St. Louis in the world’s first solo transatlantic airplane flight, production of the Ford Model T stopped and the Model A was revealed, and The Peace Bridge connecting Canada to the USA was opened. The movie, The Jazz Singer premiered, ushering in the age of “Talkies.” The Columbia broadcasting System (known as CBS) was created. The US Supreme Court ruled on Nixon v. Herndon unanimously stating that Texas law violated the 14th amendment. The first transatlantic telephone call was made from NY to London. Hoagy Carmichael, Gene Austin, Frankie Trumbauer, and Gertrude Lawrence topped the popular song charts with songs such as Stardust, My Blue Heaven, Singin’ the Blues, and Someone to Watch Over Me.

A manual washing machine cost $15.95. A Kodak Box Brownie Camera cost $2.29. A wood fired kitchen range was $69.85. In Russia, Joseph Stalin took control of the Communist Party; Italy’s Prime Minister was Benito Mussolini; the United States President was Calvin Coolidge; the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom was Stanley Baldwin. And Erma Louise Fiste was born in Bellbrook, OH.”

The paper proceeded to examine events throughout Mrs. Bombeck’s life, with correlations in 1940, 1952, 1964, 1978, 1989, and 1996.

Erma Fiste was an avid reader and writer even as a young child. She wrote for her school newspapers beginning with “The Owl” in junior high school and continuing throughout her life, with short breaks for college and child-rearing.

It was not a smooth ride for her, though: along the way, she failed composition class her freshman year in college leading her to fear that she could “never become a writer.” She dropped out of college, then was diagnosed with a hereditary, incurable kidney disease as a teen-ager, was told that “it would be nearly impossible” for her to have children, was informed that housework and motherhood were serious businesses and should not be made fun of, had her books pulled from bookstore shelves when she began to work for President Carter’s ERA Presidential Advisory Committee for Women, had 2 television shows fail, was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a mastectomy… But, as her husband said after her death, “(She was) unbelievably optimistic. I have met astronauts, war heroes, firefighters and police officers, but I have never met anyone with more courage than Erma.”

It may have had its bumps and jolts, but Erma Bombeck’s life also had phenomenal moments of joy. She returned to college, this time at the University of Dayton, where she began writing again. There, she found a mentor in Brother Tom Price, who changed her life with three words:

“You can write.” She and Bill adopted a little girl and then had two “impossible” miracles in the births of their two sons. Mrs. Cockram’s paper continued to follow Erma Bombeck’s career from writing columns for a small, local paper when her youngest started kindergarten, through her publication in larger papers, then syndication in 500 and, ultimately, over 900 newspapers. The paper also included Erma’s jobs with “Good Morning America,” Good Housekeeping, and her attempts at writing television shows.

The presentation also covered Erma Bombeck’s work on the board of the Arizona Kidney Foundation, the ERA Presidential Advisory Committee for Women, her role as the Grand Marshal for the 97th Tournament of Roses Parade, and her many honors and awards.

So, what do Phil Donahue, Ohio, the Tournament of Roses Parade, Zsa Zsa Gabor’s bed, Shirley Temple, the ERA, Eleanor Roosevelt’s International Research Fellowship, and Phoenix, Arizona have in common? Phil Donahue was a neighbor of the Bombeck’s in OH when they were all “regular” people. They raised their families together and were life-long friends. Ohio was where Erma Fiste was born, went to college, married, and started a family as well as a writing career. Erma Bombeck was the first journalist and only 5th woman to serve as Grand Marshal for The Tournament of Roses Parade. Zsa Zsa Gabor asked Erma to interview her in Zsa Zsa’s king-sized bed, which Erma did. Shirley Temple was the first person Erma ever interviewed for a newspaper; they were both 16 years old. Erma served on the ERA President’s Advisory Committee for Women. When Erma wrote and published the book, “I Want to Grow Hair. I Want to Grow Up. I Want to Go To Boise,” she had all of the proceeds from her overseas sales of that book given to the Eleanor Roosevelt International Research Fellowship (the proceeds from the US sales went to the American Cancer Society). As for Phoenix, AZ? While touring to talk about her columns, she found herself in Phoenix, AZ and fell in love with the place. She and her husband moved there for the second half of their lives. She is buried in OH with a stone from AZ over her grave.

Mrs. Cockram’s paper ended with information about the “Erma Bombeck Writer’s Workshop,” held in her memory biennially at the University of Dayton.

The Fredonia Shakespeare Club was established in 1885.