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  • The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio

  • How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less
  • By: Terry Ryan
  • Narrated by: Terry Ryan
  • Length: 4 hrs and 5 mins

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The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio

By: Terry Ryan
Narrated by: Terry Ryan
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Publisher's Summary

Stepping back into a time when fledgling advertising agencies were active partners with consumers, 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 on the ironing board.

Evelyn Ryan won every appliance her family ever owned by entering contests. 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. 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, Evelyn Ryan's story shows how a winning spirit will triumph over the poverty of circumstance.

©2001 Terry Ryan, All Rights Reserved (P)2001 Simon & Schuster Inc., All Rights Reserved

Critic Reviews

"If Mrs. Ryan were starting out today, she'd be president of J. Walter Thompson tomorrow." (The New York Times)
"This well-told, suspenseful tale...has a fiction-worthy climax that will keep listeners laughing even as they're glued to Ryan's tale." (Publishers Weekly)

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