Women’s History Month: Ruth Ellen Church
Day 25 of Women’s History Month features the Chicago Tribune’s Ruth Ellen Church (who often used the byline Mary Meade). She was the food editor from 1936 to 1974. She graduated from Iowa State University in 1933 with a degree in food and nutrition journalism. She guided the development of The Tribune’s test kitchen, one of the first at a newspaper, and in 1962 became the first American writing a regular wine column.
She won six Vesta Awards – the top recognition for food sections.
In 1948, Church introduced the recipe feature “Cake of the Week.” Church was quoted: “My staff and I have known for a long time that women love cakes, but we were somewhat surprised at the popularity of this weekly cake presentation.”
As proof, Church noted that 200 women called the newspaper on the day that the recipe for Orange Lemon Sunshine Cake appeared too blurry to read.
Church wrote numerous cookbooks during her 38 years at the newspaper. They reflect changes in gender roles, technology and trends in food.
These were the ones that the New York Times mentioned in her obituary: “The Indispensable Guide for the Modern Cook” (1955), “The Burger Cookbook” (1967), “Entertaining With Wine” (1970) and “Mary Meade’s Sausage Cookbook” (1967).
Here is more about Church’s cookbook.
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