Agnes White Tizard (July 10, 1895 – March 28, 1979) was an American home economist and nutrition consultant who worked for

General Mills General Mills, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded ultra-processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in ...

and was associated with the brand character

Betty Crocker Betty Crocker is a brand and fictional character used in advertising campaigns for food and recipes. The character was created by the Washburn-Crosby Company in 1921 to give a personalized response to consumer product questions. In 1954, Gener ...

. Tizard was the voice of Crocker on the radio for 20 years, and wrote the original ''

Betty Crocker Cookbook The ''Betty Crocker Cookbook'' is a cookbook written by staff at General Mills, the holders of the Betty Crocker trademark. The persona of Betty Crocker was invented by the Washburn-Crosby Company (which would later become General Mills) as a femi ...

'' in 1950. Tizard was the first host of a radio cooking program in the United States.

Early life and family

Agnes White was born on July 10, 1895, in Illinois. Her parents were George B. White and Laura Ferrell White. She married William E. Tizard, a mining engineer. They lived in Valley Center, California.

Career

Beginning in the early 1920s, Tizard was a home economist for the Washburn Crosby Company, which became General Mills. In 1924, Tizard became the host of the new radio program, ''The Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air,'' which originally aired on WCCO in Minneapolis and soon was carried nationally on the

NBC Radio Network The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (also known as the NBC Red Network from 1927 to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in continuous operation from 1926 through 1999. Along with the NBC Blue Network, it wa ...

. The show was the first radio cooking program in the United States. Tizard remained in the role for 20 years. In 1950, White wrote the original ''Betty Crocker Cookbook''.

Death and legacy

Tizard died on March 28, 1979. She is interred at Valley Center Cemetery. Tizard's ''Betty Crocker Cookbook'' is now the flagship book of what has become a large collection of books printed under the Betty Crocker name. More than 75 million copies of the book have been sold since it was first published in 1950. The home owned by Tizard and her husband is now referred to as the "Betty Crocker House," and is open for tours monthly. The Valley Center Historical Society erected a marker at the site identifying the property as a site of historic interest. The Valley Center History Museum has a permanent exhibit about Tizard's life and work, where visitors can listen to a 1936 recording of Tizard speaking on the ''Cooking School of the Air'' radio program.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tizard, Agnes White 1895 births 1979 deaths Home economists American radio actresses General Mills people Radio actresses People from Illinois People from Valley Center, California Nutritionists American cookbook writers American radio hosts