Timing is Everything: A Collection of Bombeck Remembrances

During Erma Bombeck’s lifetime, there weren’t many female humor columnists, and she used her womanhood to her advantage. According to Time magazine, July 2, 1984, Erma Bombeck was “the only female in a seditious cabal called the American Academy of Humor Columnists, whose other members are Art Buchwald, Russel Baker, Art Hoppe, Gerald Nachman and Don Ross, and whose sole function is to give members an excuse to write insulting letters to one another.” Art Buchwald had some things to say about why Erma Bombeck was inducted: “she won a banana-bread bake-off with another woman and also promised to make coffee and clean up.”

A decade and a half later, after Erma’s passing, Buchwald gave a talk at the Erma Bombeck Conference on Popular American Humor. He did a phone interview before this talk, where he described the American Academy of Humor Columnists as “pure invention.” His list of members included Russel Baker, Calvin Trillin, Andy Rooney, Mark Russell, and Dave Barry. He said they never had meetings but corresponded through letters in a “non-P.C. and irreverent” fashion. This time Buchwald said about Erma, “The only reason we let her in was that she begged. She liked being the only woman. Just to get her mad, sometimes we talked about putting Sophia Loren in.” When asked how he and Erma had become such great friends, he answered deadpan: “Sex. It was all sex. I was the sexiest humorist she knew.”

Although both Bombeck and Buchwald were hilarious, they could also be serious in sensitive situations. Perhaps comic flair comes from an innate sense of what is appropriate… and knowing when to be humorous. Timing is everything. According to stories from her friends, Erma Bombeck felt a sense of deep empathy for many people. On Tuesday, April 30, 1996, a little over a week after Erma’s death, columnist D.L Stewart recalled a letter she had once written to his family after the death of his stepson, even though they had never met.

Dear D.L.:

I have just put down a gut-wrenching letter from a fan of yours and mine. This is the first I’ve heard of Adam’s death. I am so sorry. Pain is not transferable, but we are allowed to imagine it.

The ‘fan’ said an interesting thing about how much writers like us become part of their lives. It is because we do give away so much of ourselves. Your family was so real to her that the tears were also genuine.

God, it’s been a year! All the words that are supposed to serve me well don’t begin to express what I feel.

I just wanted you and Mimi to know that people do care when the laughter of a humorist is halted. With God’s help, it will return.

Love, Erma

In a 1997 tribute to Erma Bombeck in People magazine, another friend of Erma’s, Marianna Cochran, recalled, “When my 27-year-old son died 10 years ago, she was crying so hard she had to call back. She said, ‘My God, I don’t know how you can stand it,’ and that was so comforting to me. Everyone else said, ‘I know what you’re going through,’ and they didn’t.”

Even Art Buchwald, when thinking about her death, had serious things to say about Erma Bombeck. “Erma was just a wonderful friend, and her humor transcended what she did for a living. Erma's gift to the country was that she provided people with humor, and there was no other person who could do it in quite the way she did.”

Here’s what other Erma Bombeck Writer’s Workshop presenters had to say about Erma and her writing:

“Erma’s ability to find insight and humor in the most mundane of our preoccupation has always been an inspiration for those of us seeking to reflect the real world. Through her work, Erma managed to touch a common humanity, which, in the end, is the purpose of all art.”

Tom Batiuk
Syndicated Columnist
“Funky Winkerbean” and “Crankshaft”

“She inspired me as a local kid growing up in Dayton that success was possible from Ohio. …Her gentle humor as it related to common family situations has become standard in newspapers. Though humor is hard to write, the family perspective is not. I’ve heard Dave Barry called Erma Bombeck on steroids.”

Chip Bok
Editorial Cartoonist
Akron Beacon Journal

“She had a genuine, unique voice that spoke to people. She gave respite from politics and war and made people laugh—sometimes made them think. She had longevity—a rarity today. And she was a great mom. Our family was blessed.”

Matt Bombeck
Erma’s son
Television feature film writer

“Erma and my mother were very close friends. I grew up reading her column and her books. Erma’s quotes and her point of view were the norm at our house. Being funny was a survivalist technique out in the ‘burbs. In the column, ‘Mayva’ was my mom. Most of us have thoughts and opinions and wry observation. If you mix this with her talent for writing, her gift of humor, and her courage to put it all down for all of the world to see, that’s a lot.”

Tony Cochran
Syndicated Cartoonist
“Agnes”

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