Katherine (Kate) Margaret Brew Vaughn (October 22, 1873 – May 20, 1933) was an American author, lecturer, home economics teacher, newspaper writer, and radio host.

Early life

Kate Brew was born on October 22, 1873, in

Hendersonville, Tennessee Hendersonville is the largest city in Sumner County, Tennessee, on Old Hickory Lake. The population was 61,753 at the 2020 census. Hendersonville is the fourth-largest city in the Nashville metropolitan area after Nashville, Murfreesboro, an ...

, the daughter of Patrick H. O'Gorman Brew (1821–1898) and Catherine "Kate" White (1841–1907). She took special training in child-welfare work at the

Peabody College Vanderbilt Peabody College of Education and Human Development (also known as Vanderbilt Peabody College, Peabody College, or simply Peabody) is the education school of Vanderbilt University, a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. ...

in Nashville.

Career

In 1911 Kate Brew Vaughn did her first cooking demonstration at the

Tennessee State Fair The Tennessee State Fair is an annual state fair, formerly held in Nashville, Tennessee. Until 2021, the fair was generally held in the second week of September, as well as the weekends surrounding it. The fair regularly had attendance over 200,0 ...

. After that she went to work for

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer hea ...

in Cincinnati to promote their new product,

Crisco Crisco is an American brand of shortening that is produced by B%26G Foods. Introduced in June 1911 by Procter & Gamble, it was the first shortening to be made entirely of vegetable oil, originally cottonseed oil. Additional products marketed un ...

. From 1912 to 1914 she traveled throughout the United States giving demonstrations on nutrition and cooking. Hundreds of people came to see her make specialties such as her Japanese Fruit Cake ("Mikado Cake"). On February 19, 1916, the ''

Los Angeles Herald The ''Los Angeles Herald'' or the ''Evening Herald'' was a newspaper published in Los Angeles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Founded in 1873 by Charles A. Storke, the newspaper was acquired by William Randolph Hearst in 1931. It ...

'' touted:

With a Record-breaking attendance of housewives, clubwomen and teachers in attendance, Mrs. Kate Brew Vaughn, cooking expert, today closed the week's course in Better Food, Better Homes which, under the auspices of ''The Evening Herald'', she has been conducting at Walker auditorium ... Following the demonstration hundreds of women crowded round the famous celebrated domestic science expert to express their gratitude for the benefits they declare they have received through the Better Food, Better Homes free cooking course ... In concluding her talks to the Los Angeles women she urged them to get in close and constant touch with the public school teachers who are doing so much to develop the children.

In 1917 Vaughn worked in New York to test recipes compatible with wartime shortages and rationing. She taught how to make a Victory Cake eggless, sugarless, and butterless; she said someone once told her they were also "joyless", but then ate three pieces. Vaughn created the Bureau of Child Hygiene for the North Carolina State Board of Health and served as its director until September 1919. She created the Home Economics Department at the ''

Los Angeles Evening Express The ''Los Angeles Herald-Express'' was one of Los Angeles' oldest newspapers, formed after a combination of the ''Los Angeles Herald'' and the '' Los Angeles Express''. After a 1962 combination with Hearst Corporation's ''Los Angeles Examiner'' ...

'' on January 12, 1920. Beginning in 1920 Vaughn was a lecturer on home economics, taught home economics at

North Carolina State College North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The university ...

, and gave radio lectures on home economics four mornings a week on

KNX (AM) KNX (1070 Hertz, kHz) is a commercial radio, commercial AM radio, AM radio station in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California. It airs an all news radio, all-news radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. KNX is one of the oldest stations in the U ...

. She wrote many booklets under the direction of

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...

's U.S. Food Commission for Boards of Health and Manufacturers, and was the author of ''Table Treats in Wartime'', ''Culinary Echoes from Dixie'', ''Up-to-the-Minute Cook Book: A Collection of Tested Recipes'', ''My Best Recipes: A selection from twenty years' experience of adapting and proving tested recipes'', and ''Art of Preserving and Canning''. As of 2008, ''Culinary Echoes from Dixie'' and ''My Best Recipes'' were considered "hot commodities" in historic cookbook circles.

Personal life

On April 14, 1896, Kate Brew married William Weaver Vaughn (1863–1932). They had five children: Martha "Marte/Sis" Anne V. Curtiss (1897–1984), twins William Weaver "Ibb" (1900–1947) and James Preston "J.P./Pet" (1900–1968), Edwin Thomas "Tug", and Katherine Brew "Tatty". Vaughn moved to California in 1919 with her son Ed and daughter Tatty. She died on May 20, 1933, in Los Angeles, and was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in

Glendale Glendale is the anglicised version of the Gaelic Gleann Dail, which means ''valley of fertile, low-lying arable land''. It may refer to: Places Australia * Glendale, New South Wales ** Stockland Glendale, a shopping centre *Glendale, Queensland, ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaughn, Kate Brew 1873 births 1933 deaths American women writers American writers American educators American women educators People from Hendersonville, Tennessee Peabody College alumni