Erma entered Emerson Junior High School in 1940, and began writing a humorous column for its newspaper, "The Owl". In 1942, she entered Parker (now Patterson) Vocational High School, where she wrote a serious column, mixing in bits of humor. That same year she began work at the "Dayton Herald" as a copygirl, sharing her full-time assignment with a girlfriend. In 1943, for her first journalistic work, she interviewed Shirley Temple, who visited Dayton, and the interview became a newspaper feature.