Evelyn Lehman Ryan was born in Sherwood, Ohio, to Orren and Minnie Lehman; Minnie died soon after giving birth, and Orren sent Ryan and her older sister to live with relatives.
[1] Ryan worked as a typesetter and then a columnist at the Sherwood Chronicle, which was published by her step-grandmother, Josephine Etchie.
[2] She began entering contests in the late 1940s, starting with Burma-Shave rhymes, and regularly won prizes such as watches, kitchen appliances, and in one instance an entire case of candy bars.
[1] From 1953 to 1965, to support her family she entered contests for writers which in the US in the 1950s and 1960s were created by large commercial products companies as a promotional tool.
[2] Her daughter, Terry Ryan, wrote a 2001 book, The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less, which was made into a 2005 movie, The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio.