The Prizewinner's Daughter

We're so sad to see on the front page of the Chronicle that local author Terry Ryan has died of cancer at the age of 61. We really loved her book, The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, about how her plucky mom raised a family of 10 children on the earnings she made as a jingle-writing contestant in the 1950s. Heartwarming and funny, yet also sharply insightful as to the larger societal pressures on women of the era, the book really stayed with us -- it's no wonder it was quickly snapped up for a movie starring Julianne Moore. We still recite some of Mrs. Ryan's jingles under our breath while we do chores around the house. ("My frisk-the-Frigidaire, clean-the-cupboards-bare, sandwich!")

Terry Ryan had a pretty incredible life of her own -- after her childhood in Defiance, Ohio, she moved out to San Francisco, joined the Daughters of Bilitis, one of the first lesbian rights organizations in the country, and promptly got a gig working at the San Francisco Chronicle, writing the popular 1980s-90s comic T.E. Sylvester.

She was diagnosed with cancer right after the movie of her mother's life wrapped in 2004, and died on Wednesday. She is survived by her partner Pat Holt (former Chron book review editor) and her nine siblings.