Husted, Marjorie Child (c. 1892–1986)

American home economist and businesswoman who helped popularize the image of "Betty Crocker." Born Marjorie Child in Minneapolis, Minnesota, around 1892; died in 1986; one of the four children of Sampson Reed (a lawyer) and Alice Albert (Webber) Child; graduated from the West High School of Minneapolis; B.A. and B.Ed. from the University of Minnesota, 1913; married K. Wallace Husted, in October 1925.

Born around 1892, raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Marjorie Husted graduated from the University of Minnesota and began her career as secretary to the Infant Welfare Society of Minneapolis. During World War I, she served with the Red Cross, first as director of the information and publicity bureau of the home-service department of the northern division, and later as assistant director of field service in the same division. Following the war, she worked for the Women's Cooperative Alliance until 1923, then secured a job in promotion and marketing with the Creamette Company of Minneapolis. After a year, she moved to the Washburn-Crosby Company, makers of Gold Medal Flour, where she served as a home economics field representative. In 1926, she instituted a home-service department for Washburn-Crosby, with a staff of cooks, nutritionists, and home economics advisers that answered homemaking inquiries from consumers over the signature "Betty Crocker," a name used for that purpose since 1921. In 1928, when the company merged and consolidated into General Mills, Inc., the home-service department was renamed the Betty Crocker Homemaking Service.

For the next 18 years, Husted served as director of the department, helping to transform "Betty Crocker" into the image of the perfect American housewife, an image that became synonymous with General Mills. Neysa McMein , a leading commercial artist of the day, was commissioned to paint a portrait of Betty Crocker, whose likeness and signature was then reproduced on numerous company products. A series of day-time radio shows was launched, bringing the voice of Betty Crocker to the nation's housewives. In 1945, Fortune Magazine wrote, "Without much doubt the woman best known to housewives of the U.S., with the exception of Mrs. Roosevelt, is Betty Crocker." A Business Week poll, conducted in February 1948, concurred, reporting that "Betty Crocker" was known to 91% of all American housewives, many of whom believed that she was an actual person.

In 1948, Husted was named consultant in advertising, public relations, and home service to General Mills, a position equivalent to a vice presidency at the time. That same year, she served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Agriculture on food conservation. In 1949, she was honored by the Women's National Press Club in Washington and received the Advertising Woman of the Year Award from the Advertising Federation of America. In 1950, Husted left General Mills to form her own consulting firm, Marjorie Child Husted and Associates. However, "Betty Crocker," with a periodic streamlining of her hairstyle, still survives.

sources:

Current Biography. NY: H.W. Wilson, 1949.

Gutis, Philip S. "Marjorie Husted Dead at 94; Helped Create Betty Crocker," in The New York Times Biographical Service. December 1986, pp. 1449–1450.

McHenry, Robert, ed. Famous American Women. NY: Dover, 1983.