The woman beneath the familiar costume and embodied Aunt Jemima was Edith Wilson. A Chicago native, Wilson was an accomplished singer and actress who had performed with some of the biggest names in American music, including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway. By 1956, she was traveling the country portraying Aunt Jemima for Quaker Oats, making personal appearances at community events and fundraisers.
The advertising character Aunt Jemima had been created in the late 1800s and, by the twentieth century, had become one of America’s most recognizable commercial figures. Quaker Oats hired a succession of Black women to portray her at fairs, grocery stores and public appearances around the country. It was an era when advertisers didn’t simply put a familiar face on a package, sometimes they sent that character right into your hometown.
Wilson’s Northwoods visit was tied to a cause that Eagle River had been working hard to make a reality: a new hospital. After arriving at the Rhinelander airport, she was escorted north to Eagle River, where the high school band greeted her and led a parade through downtown. Over the next few days she spent time entertaining children at the Vilas Theater, appearing at the Northernaire Showboat in Three Lakes, and King’s Gateway in Land O’ Lakes, also joining the Rotary Club for dinner at the Chanticleer Inn.
On Saturday July 28th, 1956, the Eagle River High School became pancake headquarters, with about 100 Northwoods ladies working as cooks, waitresses and dishwashers. By the time it was over, they had flipped out more than 5,000 pancakes, fried 350 pounds of sausage and emptied 400 bottles of syrup. Between Pancake Day and the other activities surrounding Aunt Jemimas visit, $1,570 was raised for the hospital fund.
In December 1959, Aunt Jemima returned to the area for another three-day visit, only this time Rhinelander was the destination. The Rhinelander Lions Club was preparing for its pancake festival at the Memorial Building, then located on Stevens Street right next to the current WXPR building. Proceeds would go to supporting Lions Club projects and the new Camp 10 ski hill being developed between Rhinelander and Tomahawk.
For two days, Aunt Jemima made the rounds through Rhinelander. She visited the Junior High, Central, Pine Lake, Pelican, West, St. Joseph’s, South Park and St. Mary’s schools. She stopped at the Ford Convalescent Home, appeared before the Rotary and Lions clubs and even performed on local radio station, WOBT.
Local businesses got behind the event as well, donating nearly everything needed to feed the crowd. Quaker Oats supplied the pancake flour, while Peters Meat Products donated half the sausage and Corn Products Company provided all of the maple-flavored syrup. Cleary’s Milk and Ice Cream Company contributed 65 pounds of butter, 50 gallons of skim milk, 500 half-pints of milk, 50 pints of half and half, 30 dozen eggs and even a refrigerated truck. Lassig’s Dairy supplied additional eggs, cream and orange juice, while Cirili’s Super Valu provided sugar and soap, Van’s Coffee Vending Service supplied the coffee, and Jesse Food Products donated half the shortening. Lloyd’s Music and Appliance Store furnished a public-address system, an organ and one of the grills, Rhinelander Paper Company supplied two more grills, and the Rhinelander Cafe loaned a mixer. Even getting Aunt Jemima around town was a community effort, with Oneida Motor Sales and Quality Chevrolet providing the cars that chauffeured her during her three day stay and appearances at area schools.
On December 16th, 1959 more than a thousand people came through the Memorial Building. Lions Club members griddled up at least another 5,000 pancakes, while Aunt Jemima entertained the crowd from late morning into the evening. The newspaper even kept track of the day’s champion pancake eater, a 70-year-old man who managed to put away nineteen.
Looking back nearly seventy years later, these visits also reflect how much American culture has changed. Aunt Jemima was a familiar and often fondly remembered advertising figure for generations, and most people who came to these events likely knew her simply as the smiling woman from the pancake box. The character, however, had been created in the late nineteenth century from an older image of stereotypical black servant that carried meanings many Americans of the 1950s may never have stopped to consider. Over time, as those origins became better understood, the image was gradually changed before Quaker Oats finally retired the Aunt Jemima name in 2020, with the products becoming Pearl Milling Company in 2021.
Edith Wilson’s own story adds another dimension to that history, because behind the advertising character was a talented singer and actress with an impressive career of her own. Like so much of history, knowing a little more about where something came from can help us understand both why it was once so familiar and why, eventually, it changed.
Many of the places Aunt Jemima visited have changed as well, or disappeared altogether, and the advertising character herself has become part of history. But for a few days in 1956 and again in 1959, this nationally known figure became part of Northern Wisconsin’s story. What began as a national advertising campaign showed up in person right here in the Northwoods, raising money for a new hospital in Eagle River, supporting community projects in Rhinelander, and leaving behind an interesting little chapter in our local history.
Sources: Rhinelander Daily News articles 1956, 1959
