The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio

Introduction to the Ryan Family

In the small town of Defiance, Ohio, in 1953, the Ryan family lived a life of crowded but cheerful chaos. With nine children and another on the way, Evelyn Ryan managed a household that was one of the poorest in town. Her husband, Kelly, worked at a machine shop, but a significant portion of his weekly paycheck was spent on alcohol, leaving very little for necessities. Despite these hardships, the home was filled with energy, and the children often spent their days playing outside while their mother worked tirelessly inside.

To bridge the gap between their meager income and their mounting needs, Evelyn turned to a unique pursuit known as contesting. This was a popular hobby in the post-World War II era where companies offered prizes for clever jingles, poems, or short statements about their products. Evelyn studied the preferences of different advertising agencies and used dozens of variations of her name and address to submit multiple entries for a single contest. Her kitchen cabinets were filled not with food, but with shoeboxes of labels and box tops required as proof of purchase.

Over the years, these efforts brought a steady stream of small but vital rewards into the house, including watches, blenders, and roller skates. However, by the late summer of 1953, the family faced a genuine crisis when their landlord announced they were being evicted. Around the same time, the eldest son, Dick, was hit by a car while delivering newspapers, destroying his bicycle and costing him his job. The pressure to find a new home and replace the bike weighed heavily on Evelyn, who began targeting specific contests to meet these urgent needs.

The turning point arrived when representatives from Western Auto came to the door to deliver life-changing news. Evelyn had entered a bicycle contest in Dick’s name, and her entry had won the national grand prize. The reward included a new bicycle, a washer and dryer, and five thousand dollars in cash. This windfall allowed the family to put a down payment on a large, four-bedroom house of their own.

Moving into the large house on Washington Avenue felt like entering a palace for the Ryan family. After years of squeezing into a tiny rental, the children were amazed by simple luxuries, such as a real bathtub. The sheer size of the new home made them feel wealthy, even though the beds were secondhand and the house sat right next to thunderous railroad tracks. The move was a direct result of Evelyn’s skill with words, proving that her determination could perform miracles when they needed them most.