The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio

How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less

Biography & Memoir
Cover of the book The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio by Terry Ryan, Simon & Schuster
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Terry Ryan ISBN: 9780743217279
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Publication: September 2, 2005
Imprint: Simon & Schuster Language: English
Author: Terry Ryan
ISBN: 9780743217279
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication: September 2, 2005
Imprint: Simon & Schuster
Language: English

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio introduces Evelyn Ryan, an enterprising woman who kept poverty at bay with wit, poetry, and perfect prose during the "contest era" of the 1950s and 1960s.
Stepping back into a time when fledgling advertising agencies were active partners with consumers, and everyday people saw possibility in every coupon, Terry Ryan tells how her mother kept the family afloat by writing jingles and contest entries. Mom's winning ways defied the Church, her alcoholic husband, and antiquated views of housewives. To her, flouting convention was a small price to pay when it came to securing a happy home for her six sons and four daughters. Evelyn, who would surely be a Madison Avenue executive if she were working today, composed her jingles not in the boardroom, but at the ironing board.
By entering contests wherever she found them -- TV, radio, newspapers, direct-mail ads -- Evelyn Ryan was able to win every appliance her family ever owned, not to mention cars, television sets, bicycles, watches, a jukebox, and even trips to New York, Dallas, and Switzerland. But it wasn't just the winning that was miraculous; it was the timing. If a toaster died, one was sure to arrive in the mail from a forgotten contest. Days after the bank called in the second mortgage on the house, a call came from the Dr Pepper company: Evelyn was the grand-prize winner in its national contest -- and had won enough to pay the bank.
Graced with a rare appreciation for life's inherent hilarity, Evelyn turned every financial challenge into an opportunity for fun and profit. From her frenetic supermarket shopping spree -- worth $3,000 today -- to her clever entries worthy of Erma Bombeck, Dorothy Parker, and Ogden Nash, the story of this irrepressible woman whose talents reached far beyond her formidable verbal skills is told in The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio with an infectious joy that shows how a winning spirit will triumph over the poverty of circumstance.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio introduces Evelyn Ryan, an enterprising woman who kept poverty at bay with wit, poetry, and perfect prose during the "contest era" of the 1950s and 1960s.
Stepping back into a time when fledgling advertising agencies were active partners with consumers, and everyday people saw possibility in every coupon, Terry Ryan tells how her mother kept the family afloat by writing jingles and contest entries. Mom's winning ways defied the Church, her alcoholic husband, and antiquated views of housewives. To her, flouting convention was a small price to pay when it came to securing a happy home for her six sons and four daughters. Evelyn, who would surely be a Madison Avenue executive if she were working today, composed her jingles not in the boardroom, but at the ironing board.
By entering contests wherever she found them -- TV, radio, newspapers, direct-mail ads -- Evelyn Ryan was able to win every appliance her family ever owned, not to mention cars, television sets, bicycles, watches, a jukebox, and even trips to New York, Dallas, and Switzerland. But it wasn't just the winning that was miraculous; it was the timing. If a toaster died, one was sure to arrive in the mail from a forgotten contest. Days after the bank called in the second mortgage on the house, a call came from the Dr Pepper company: Evelyn was the grand-prize winner in its national contest -- and had won enough to pay the bank.
Graced with a rare appreciation for life's inherent hilarity, Evelyn turned every financial challenge into an opportunity for fun and profit. From her frenetic supermarket shopping spree -- worth $3,000 today -- to her clever entries worthy of Erma Bombeck, Dorothy Parker, and Ogden Nash, the story of this irrepressible woman whose talents reached far beyond her formidable verbal skills is told in The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio with an infectious joy that shows how a winning spirit will triumph over the poverty of circumstance.

More books from Simon & Schuster

Cover of the book Paradise by Terry Ryan
Cover of the book End of Summer by Terry Ryan
Cover of the book Mom in the Movies by Terry Ryan
Cover of the book Escape of the Mini-Mummy by Terry Ryan
Cover of the book Consequences by Terry Ryan
Cover of the book I've Got You Under My Skin by Terry Ryan
Cover of the book The Great Snortle Hunt by Terry Ryan
Cover of the book Kochland by Terry Ryan
Cover of the book Optical Illusions by Terry Ryan
Cover of the book Supermarket by Terry Ryan
Cover of the book She's So Dead to Us by Terry Ryan
Cover of the book I Knew You Were Trouble by Terry Ryan
Cover of the book Little Bee by Terry Ryan
Cover of the book Clocks and More Clocks by Terry Ryan
Cover of the book The Perfect Thing by Terry Ryan
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy