Martha White is an American brand of

flour Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many culture ...

cornmeal Cornmeal is a meal (coarse flour) or a cell membrane ground from dried corn. It is a common staple food, and is ground to coarse, medium, and fine consistencies, but not as fine as wheat flour can be.Herbst, Sharon, ''Food Lover's Companion'', ...

cornbread Cornbread is a quick bread made with cornmeal, associated with the cuisine of the Southern United States, with origins in Native American cuisine. It is an example of batter bread. Dumplings and pancakes made with finely ground cornmeal are st ...

mixes, cake mixes, muffin mixes, and similar products. The Martha White brand was established as the premium brand of

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

-based Royal Flour Mills in 1899. At that time, Nashville businessman Richard Lindsey introduced a fine flour that he named for his daughter, Martha White Lindsey. The Martha White brand is probably most associated with its long-term sponsorship of the

Grand Ole Opry The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a weekly American country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, founded on November 28, 1925, by George D. Hay as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM. Currently owned and operated by Opry Entertainment (a divis ...

, a

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

program featuring

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

. The relationship began in 1948, and has existed continuously since then, making it one of the longest continually running radio show sponsorships known. A jingle for the flour was written by the Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle in 1950 was the first Martha White Jingle. The Carter girls also wrote a jingle for Martha White Coffee Time an early morning radio program in 1951 that Martha White sponsored. Nashville songwriter Pat Twitty wrote a jimgle in 1953, and was performed from the stage of the Grand Ole Opry by

bluegrass music Bluegrass music is a genre of American roots music The term American folk music encompasses numerous music genres, variously known as ''traditional music'', ''traditional folk music'', ''contemporary folk music'', ''vernacular music,'' or ...

artists

Flatt and Scruggs Flatt and Scruggs were an American bluegrass duo. Singer and guitarist Lester Flatt and banjo player Earl Scruggs, both of whom had been members of Bill Monroe's band, the Bluegrass Boys, from 1945 to 1948, formed the duo in 1948. Flatt and Scru ...

. It is still in use today, having become a bluegrass standard and a signature number of Rhonda Vincent and the Rage. In 1972, Tennessee Ernie Ford became the spokesman for the flour, with the catchphrase, "Goodness gracious, it's pea-pickin' good!" Packaging for Martha White ingredients (flour, cornmeal) features the likeness of three-year-old Martha White. The commercials for the products stress the fact that they are "self-rising" due to the presence of leavening known by

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...

s "Hot-Rize" or "Hot-Rize Plus". Martha White has expanded its product offering beyond ingredients to include

baking mix A baking mix is a mixed formulation of ingredients used for the cooking of baked goods. Baking mixes may be commercially manufactured or homemade. Baking mixes that cater to particular dietary needs, such as vegan, gluten-free, or kosher bakin ...

es. Martha White merged with Beatrice Foods in 1975. In 1986, Beatrice, newly acquired by

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strate ...

, spun off its specialty foods and nonfood brands as E-II Holdings. E-II attempted to take over

American Brands Fortune Brands was a holding company founded in 1969 as American Brands, renamed in 1997 and split apart in 2011. The corporate headquarters was in Deerfield, Illinois, in the United States. The company had diversified product lines. It announced ...

in 1988, but instead American Brands purchased E-II. Martha White was sold off in 1989. Martha White was purchased by the Pillsbury Company in 1994; the baking products of Pillsbury were spun off in 2001 under the name International Multifoods.

The J.M. Smucker Company The J.M. Smucker Company, also known as Smuckers, is an American manufacturer of food and beverage products. Headquartered in Orrville, Ohio, the company was founded in 1897 as a maker of apple butter. J.M. Smucker currently has three major bus ...

acquired International Multifoods in 2004. It was sold to Hometown Food, a division of

Brynwood Partners Brynwood Partners is an American private equity investment firm focused on leveraged buyout and other control investments. Since its founding in 1984, the firm, headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, has raised five private equity fund, invest ...

, in 2018.

References

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External links

Martha White website
Products introduced in 1899 Companies based in Memphis, Tennessee Baking mixes