Evelyn Ryan

Evelyn Ryan was a resourceful mother of 10 children in Defiance, Ohio, who supported her family during the 1950s and 1960s by winning numerous contests with her jingles and poems, often at a rate of one prize every four entries. Married young to an alcoholic husband, she famously won her first major prize of $5,000 in 1953, using it as a down payment on a house just before eviction. Her story was immortalized in her daughter Terry Ryan's 2001 bestseller 'The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio,' later adapted into a 2005 film starring Julianne Moore.