Erma Bombeck's Gravesite

A 29,000-pound rock has become a monument for writer Erma Bombeck’s grave. The massive rock was brought here by flat-bed truck from near her former home in Arizona. Her husband, Bill Bombeck, said he wanted a “piece of Phoenix” at Erma’s grave to commemorate the 25 years they spent together in Arizona.

Born Erma Louise Fiste in 1927 in Dayton, Ohio, she worked for a daily newspaper while in high school and while attending the University of Dayton. After graduating she became a reporter for the Dayton Journal-Herald (which later became the Dayton Daily News), where she also wrote feature stories and a housekeeping column for the women’s page, continuing until the birth of her first child in 1953. By 1964 she was the mother of three, and returned to her column appearing in more than 800 newspapers. Her witty-but-wise columns poked fun at family life from her place as a suburban housewife. One of her six best sellers won the American Cancer Society’s Medal of Honor in 1990 for advice to help children survive cancer. This internationally read humor columnist died of complications following a kidney transplant operation in 1996.