Anna Short Harrington (1897 – 1955) was an American model. She was one of several

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

models hired to promote a corporate trademark as "

Aunt Jemima Pearl Milling Company (formerly known as Aunt Jemima from 1889 to 2021) is an American breakfast brand for pancake mix, syrup, and other breakfast food products. The original version of the pancake mix for the brand was developed in 1888–188 ...

Biography

Anna Short was born in 1897 in the

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area of

Marlboro County, South Carolina Marlboro County is a county located in the Pee Dee region on the northern border of the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, its population was 26,667. Its county seat is Bennettsville. The Great Pee Dee River runs through it. M ...

. The Short family lived on the

Pegues Place Pegues Place, also known as the Claudius Pegues House, is a historic home located near Wallace, Marlboro County, South Carolina. It was built about 1770, and is a two-story Georgian white frame house with a one-story, full façade porch. A wing w ...

plantation as sharecroppers. She grew up in

Bennettsville Bennettsville is a city located in the U.S. state of South Carolina on the Great Pee Dee River. As the county seat of Marlboro County, Bennettsville is noted for its historic homes and buildings from the 19th and early 20th centuries—including ...

, South Carolina, where she had three daughters and two sons. Her husband, Weldon Harrington, left the family after 10 years of marriage. In 1927, she moved north to work as a maid for a family in Nedrow, New York. A year later, she was reunited with her five children in

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, New York. Harrington cooked for various fraternity houses at

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

. In 1935,

Quaker Oats The Quaker Oats Company, known as Quaker, is an American food conglomerate based in Chicago. It has been owned by PepsiCo since 2001. History Precursor miller companies In the 1850s, Ferdinand Schumacher and Robert Stuart founded oat mills. S ...

discovered her cooking pancakes at the

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in the Syracuse area. A November 1935 ad in ''

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'' emphasized her Southern accent and dialect, saying "Let ol' Auntie sing in yo' kitchen." Part of Harrington's marketability would have been her southern accent as a native of South Carolina. Her last recorded appearance was the 1954 Post-Standard Home Show. She died in Syracuse in 1955 at the age of 58, and was buried at Oakwood Cemetery. She had made enough money to purchase a 22-room house with a backyard bungalow on Monroe Street, in a segregated area known as the 15th Ward, at that time considered among the worst slums in the world. The multi-room house had been cut up into single room dwelling units, where she rented many of the rooms to boarders. The house was demolished for urban renewal and construction of

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in the 1960s.

Lawsuit

On August 5, 2014, descendants of Anna Short Harrington filed a lawsuit seeking a multi-billion dollar settlement in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against defendants Quaker Oats and PepsiCo. The suit, which also named as defendants Pinnacle Foods and its former suitor Hillshire Brands, accused the companies of failing to pay Harrington and her heirs an "equitable fair share of royalties" from the pancake mix and syrup brand that uses her likeness and recipes. The lawsuit was dismissed

with prejudice Prejudice is a legal term with different meanings, which depend on whether it is used in criminal, civil, or common law. In legal context, "prejudice" differs from the more common use of the word and so the term has specific technical meanings. ...

and without leave to amend on February 18, 2015.

Biography

Lawsuit

References

Further reading