Eugenia Duke
 | It has been suggested that this article be merged into Duke's Mayonnaise. (Discuss) Proposed since December 2019. |
Eugenia Thomas Slade Duke (October 1881, Columbus, Georgia-1968) created Duke's Mayonnaise in 1917, in Greenville, South Carolina.[1] While it is the third-largest mayonnaise brand in the United States (behind Hellmann's and Kraft), its popularity was at first largely limited to the South.[2]
In August 1917, she and her daughter Martha began selling sandwiches at YMCA-run Army canteens to help make money for her family. Due to requests from soldiers at nearby Camp Sevier (a National Guard Training Camp) and other customers (she had quickly expanded the places where she sold her sandwiches), she started bottling her mayonnaise around 1923. Unable to keep up with demand, she sold it to C. F. Sauer Company in 1929. She followed Martha to California and opened the Duchess Sandwich Company followed by the Duchess Catering Company.[2][3]
In 2017, the South Carolina legislature recognized the centennial of Duke's.[4]
Biography
When Duke was 18, she married Harry Cuthbert Duke in 1900 and moved to Greenville. She was active in working towards passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution granting women the right to vote.[5]
References
- ^ Orchant, Rebecca (September 30, 2013). "Dukes Mayo Is The South's Favorite and Maybe the Best". Huffington Post. Retrieved December 31, 2019.
- ^ a b Wallace, Emily (November 5, 2013). "Duke's Mayonnaise: The Southern spread with a cult following". Washington Post. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
- ^ Zullo, Robert (December 25, 2017). "100 years of Duke's Mayonnaise: the South's favorite spread celebrates a century". Richmond Times-Dispatch. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
- ^ "2017-2018 Bill 4147 Text of Previous Version (Apr. 19, 2017) - South Carolina Legislature Online". www.scstatehouse.gov.
- ^ Dieterle, Jarrett; Ribas, Maria (June 7, 2018). "Worth The Whisk: How The Woman Behind Duke's Mayo Became A Tycoon". NPR. Retrieved 31 December 2019.