Omaha Food Editor Maude Coons
Maude Charron Coons was the longtime food editor at the Omaha World-Herald. She graduated from the home economics program at Iowa State University after overcoming paralysis caused by polio, as noting in the story above.
She started at the Omaha World-Herald as the household editor in 1936. She and her husband had relocated to Omaha in the hopes that either of them could find a job during a trying economic time. They were thrilled when they both found jobs.
Initially, she wrote under the byline of “Mary Cooks.” By the 1940’s, she wrote under her own name. She wrote several food pamphlets and one cookbook.
She was attending the annual food editors meeting when she learned that she had become a grandmother. She regularly covered the annual week-long events and at times sent back more than a story a day in the 1950’s. In one story, she outlined the new products introduced by the Omaha-based company Swanson & Son: boneless chicken fricassee, pure chicken broth, and fricassee of chicken wings. She noted that the broth could add flavor and color to gelatin molds. In another story from that same day, she reported that the head of the grocery store trade group opposed price controls for food. She also wrote about a presentation from Frigidaire. She estimated that by 1957, 18 percent of American homes would have freezers. In a story a few days later. Later, Coons wrote about a speech from a doctor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who said that the biggest nutrition problem in the country was “weight control.” He went on to declare the current diets in the news as “dangerous, faddish, and silly.” In other presentations, the editors learned that 75 percent of packaged ice cream was sold in grocery stores and that the home consumption of frozen orange juice had increased 400 percent in the past four years.
Coons answered between 60-75 questions each day, she estimated. Some were about fashion and etiquette but most were about food. With her home economics background, she could answer most questions on her own. Yet, he was stumped by how to cook some foods – such as inquiries about grilling rattlesnake, turtle and blackbirds. Sometimes the questions veered into other areas as some callers “really were just lonely and wanted to talk.”
She retired from the newspaper in 1973.
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2 Comments
Kimberly Wilmot Voss
Thanks for the post. Maude is a favorite of mine.
Ask Aunty Lynn
Found in one of my mom's old trunks a booklet "Cooking for Two" a second printing, signed by Maude Coons (in the first paragraph you need to add the 's'), Food Editor, The World-Herald. It was 'A reader-service publication of The Women's Department Household Arts Section – The Omaha World-Herald'. A 1952 Christmas present from her Aunt Eva. Have just made a scanned pdf copy, since it is well used and falling apart. I was born the following year and Mrs.Coons retired my first year in college. Women's History is so easily forgotten and rarely preserved well. Glad I found this. I would like to rewrite the booklet, with your permission, to include on my cooking website.
Am writing 'Chuckwagon Cooking' a camping booklet. Included are my recipes for rattlesnake and pheasant. I do have a recipe for turtle and ostrich in 'Australian Cookery' another booklet am writing but no blackbirds.
My family had a cattle ranch outside Omaha and a farm outside Papillion. Used to listen to my great-grandma talk about the family farm and when my great-aunt Eva married a cattle rancher and moved to Omaha. The story about my grandma who married and moved to Omaha close by came after my other great-aunts' stories. At Christmas the whole family came to the farm.
I have bookmarked your website. Would be nice to hear from you.