Marye Dahnke (August 1897 – February 1980) was an American

home economist Home economics, also called domestic science or family and consumer sciences, is a subject concerning human development, personal and family finances, consumer issues, housing and interior design, nutrition and food preparation, as well as texti ...

who worked for the

Kraft Foods The second incarnation of Kraft Foods is an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. in 2012 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz in 2015. A merger with Heinz, arra ...

corporation, being one of the first women to work in the food industry in that role. A Southerner, Dahnke was born to George and Eleanora (Hoffman) Dahnke in

Union City, Tennessee Union City is located in Obion County, Tennessee, United States. The 2020 census reported the population of the town as 11,170. It is the principal urban settlement of the surrounding micropolitan area, which includes Obion County and Fulton Count ...

, located in Obion County. Her father was a businessman and entrepreneur. She was an early home economist who became the Director of the Home Economics Department of the Kraft-Phenix Cheese Corp., later Kraft Cheese Co., Chicago, Illinois for almost 40 years. According to her Kraft biography, Marye was educated at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, taught at the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

and after starting at Kraft in the 1920s, became a home economist for Kraft Foods Group, then known as Kraft-Phenix Cheese Corp. She was known as an early female food marketer who promoted cheese by hosting "cheese talks" nationwide. and for authoring two popular cookbooks, ''The Cheese Cookbook'' (1942),''Marye Dahnke's Salad Book'' (Pocket Books, 1960), and she authored pamphlets for Kraft, such as "Cheese and Ways to Serve It" (1931). Dahnke commented on the complexity of her role, in that she had to both advocate for her company to the consumer, as well as advocate for the consumer to her company. She said, “I decided that I wanted to be, first and foremost, a business woman....And secondly, to be a factor, however small, in the food business, so that I could use the knowledge I had of foods in selling goods. This was a most worthy ambition, but the job which might fulfill my desire was still to be made.”

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dahnke, Marye Home economists Kraft Foods people 1897 births 1980 deaths People from Union City, Tennessee