Betty's Delight

This may come as a bit of a shock to you (I know it surprised me), but Betty Crocker isn’t a real person and she never was one. She was invented in 1921 (she's a year older than Betty White) by the Washburn-Crosby Company (which eventually became General Mills) as a way to give more personal sounding responses to consumer product questions. Her first name was chosen because it sounded friendly, cheerful, and knowledgeable. Her last name was borrowed from William Crocker, the company director at the time. During the 1940’s Betty Crocker was considered the second most popular woman in the United States, after Eleanor Roosevelt. Today you can find her name (and sometimes her face) on packages of cake mix, canned frosting, instant mashed potatoes, pasta salad mixes, and of course her cookbook.