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Marjorie Merriweather Post, 1887-1973
Born Springfield, Illinois
Within fifteen years of inheriting her father's Postum Cereal Company in 1914, Marjorie Merriweather Post transformed that business into the giant General Foods Corporation. Aided in this effort by her stockbroker-husband E. F. Hutton, who took the company public in 1922, Post demonstrated her own business savvy by moving the business into the nascent frozen food industry with her acquisition of Clarence Birdseye's company in 1929. She subsequently served on General Foods' board of directors from 1936 until 1958. Renowned for her luxurious lifestyle and her extraordinary collection of Russian Imperial art, Post was also a philanthropist, giving considerable sums to the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, the Boy Scouts, and other causes.
In June 1929, Post was presented at the court of Britain's King George V and Queen Mary. She posed for this photograph wearing the gown in which she was received at Buckingham Palace.
Alfred Cheney Johnston, 1929 |