Author and prize winner, Janet Halliday Ervin, a writer who won the prestigious Vogue Magazine "Prix de Paris" Career Contest, died December 30, 2014 in Franklin, Wisconsin. She was 91. The Vogue competition was held annually for college women interested in fashion and journalism, with the first prize a year in Paris working on the Vogue staff. Awarded the honor in 1946, Mrs. Ervin declined the Vogue opportunity, deciding instead to marry and begin a family. Subsequent winners included Jackie Kennedy, and finalists included Barbara Walters.
Mrs. Ervin had a successful career writing articles for Family Circle and Women's Day and a weekly column in the Toledo Blade newspaper, a humorous look at the challenges of raising three boys in 1950's middle-America, inspired by the occasional mischief of her own three sons. After the family's move to Wauwatosa, WI in 1958, Mrs. Ervin wrote three books, including The White House Cookbook, featuring her written portraits of each First Lady, as well as favorite dishes of the first families. At a time when products were promoted by contests where a homemaker could win a refrigerator, a washer-dryer or even a car by writing a jingle or a 25-word essay, Mrs. Ervin had a flair for composing winning entries. In the 1960 Milwaukee Auto Show, she won a new Chevrolet, presented to the family by radio personality Bob ("Coffeehead") Larsen. (Her youngest son provided her fresh material during the ceremony by locking himself in the prize car spotlighted at center stage in the Arena.)
Mrs. Ervin was born Janet Halliday in 1923 in Muncie, Indiana. During the War years, she was a reporter for the Muncie Evening Press. She graduated in 1946 from the University of Chicago, where during her senior year she was guest editor-in-chief on Mademoiselle's College Issue. In 1946, she married a decorated U.S. Navy pilot, Howard G. Ervin, Jr., of Hartford City, Indiana, who became a career sales executive with Owens Corning Corporation, taking the family to Cincinnati and Toledo before moving to Wauwatosa, WI. In later life, the couple lived in New Berlin, WI. They remained married until his death in 2005.
Mrs. Ervin is survived by her sons and daughters-in-law, Howard G. Ervin III and Dianne Leiker Ervin of the San Francisco Bay area, Dennis Halliday Ervin and Sue Susic Ervin of New Berlin, Wisconsin and David M. Ervin and Andrea R. Ervin of the St. Louis area; by grandchildren and spouses, Howard G. Ervin IV of Sonoma, California, Kelly Ervin Lawlis and Donald Lawlis of Greenfield, Wisconsin, Kyle A. Ervin and Jessica Jors Ervin of West Allis, Wisconsin and Rebecca Halliday Ervin of Malibu, California; and by one great-grandchild Tyler Anthony Ervin.
Janet would like to offer a fond farewell to all Hoosier friends and especially her Indiana relatives and spouses, Omer and Annabelle Halliday Foust (deceased) of Carmel, Indiana, Frank S. and Helen Ruth Ervin (deceased) formerly of Hartford City then Akron, Ohio, William E. and Marie Ervin (deceased) of Hartford City, Indiana; nieces, Julianne Foust Baughman, Frank Ervin Jr., Kathryn Ervin VanCleave (deceased), Elizabeth Ervin Dice, Elaine Ervin, Diane Ervin Kellahan and Annette Ervin Blalock (deceased).
A Memorial Service will be held at noon Monday, June 1, 2015 with visitation from
10:00 AM to 12:00 noon at Waters Funeral Home, 501 W. Washington St., Hartford
City. Burial will follow in Hartford City Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to
Indiana Historical Society, 450 W. Ohio St., Indianapolis, IN 46202.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at:
www.watersfuneralhomes.com.