Agnes White as Betty Crocker. Photo Betty Crocker Estate
Betty Crocker was created by Marjorie Husted in 1921 as the face of the Washburn-Crosby flour milling company. Betty Crocker served an important role in the company, serving as correspondent to their consumers seeking information and advice. In 1924 Betty Crocker became the spokeswoman for the company’s daytime radio “BC Cooking School of the Air,” which ran through 1953. She became the trusted helper that guided housewives into modern times, as electricity and new appliances, entered American homes.
In 1928 the Washburn-Crosby Co. was merged with several other mills and renamed General Mills. Marjorie Husted was promoted to Director and her department was renamed the Betty Crocker Homemaking Service in 1929. During the Depression, her radio program offered money-saving recipes and words of encouragement. As Susan Marks explains in her book, Finding Betty Crocker: The Secret Life of America’s First Lady of Food, “Betty Crocker’s blend of you-can-do-it optimism and practical advice was just what the public needed.”
Although Husted worked full-time she promoted that housewives concentrate on hearth and home. During the war, Husted created an outreach program, Betty Crocker’s Home Legion. The Legion was designed to support housewives who felt isolated in their own homes and women who were serving double duty in war plants as well as homemakers. The Home Legion was promoted through Betty Crocker’s radio program. Applicants were required to answer a series of questions that pertain to the homemaker’s skills at good meal planning and other domestic skills. Those who qualified were rewarded with a copy of the Homemaker’s Creed and a pin-backed button. Betty Crocker’s Home Legion was so popular that by 1944 approximately 70,000 women had enrolled. In 1945 Fortune magazine declared Betty Crocker the 2nd most popular women in America, behind Eleanor Roosevelt.
During WWII, with rationing and shortages at hand, Betty Crocker’s Home Service Department stepped up to provide advice through radio, printed columns in newspapers and women’s magazines, and recipe booklets. She urging homemakers “Let’s Make Rationing Work!” and explaining how rationing will help win the war. With nearly half of women now working outside the home, Betty Crocker and General Mills distributed almost 7 million copies of their booklet entitled, Your Share: How to Prepare Appetizing Healthful Meals with Foods Available Today. It contained recipes, tips on wartime buying, meal planning, and more.
Betty Crocker received thousands of letters a day and in 1945 the Office of War Information “drafted” Betty Crocker as a daily host of a radio show – Our Nation’s Rations, on NBC radio. The program ran for four months and addresses topics from home defense and conservation to Red Cross blood drives and the need for war bonds. The government was counting on Betty Crocker to educate and influence American women.
On May 14, 1949, President and Mrs. Truman personally presented Marjorie Husted with the Women’s Press Club award for her achievement in business.
To learn more about Marjorie Husted and the other women who brought Betty Crocker to life visit:
Four Little Known Faces Behind One Big American Icon: The Building of Betty Crocker