Women’s History Month: Mary Hart
Day 28 of Women’s History Month features food editor Mary Hart.
The food column “Ask Mary” was written by “Mary Hart,” although her last name wasn’t Hart; it was Sorenson.
Sorenson wrote under the pen name “Mary Hart” when she went to work on the women’s pages at the Minneapolis Tribune in 1945, after graduating from the the University of Minnesota. Her name then was Mary Engelhart, and the editors shortened it to Mary Hart, which they copyrighted. They planned to use that name for all the other women who, they assumed, would succeed her — and each other — every few years. (This was not unusual for the time.)
The editors assumed wrong. She stayed for 44 years and the column enjoyed an enduring popularity. A 1978 tabulation of mail received by Tribune columnists listed advice columnist Ann Landers, at 763 letters; “Hart” racked up 1,056 letters.
She was married to Franklin L. Sorensen Jr., who helped invent Instant Cream of Wheat.
It was one of the first instant cereals in the country, said his wife. ”He was very proud of (his discovery) and so was I,” Ms. Hart said, ”it cooked in a lot less time than regular Cream of Wheat and came along when women were wanting to spend less time in the kitchen.”
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