THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 27, 1995 TAG: 9509260113
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: AROUND TOWN
SOURCE: Linda McNatt
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
Driving down the winding, country road, I could feel a hint of fall in the air. Leaves in that remote section of Isle of Wight leading toward the Southampton County line already are beginning to show signs of color.
But there was an excitement about this leisurely morning ride. I felt as if a crew from ``Dateline'' or ``Good Morning, America'' should be right behind me.
After all, I had found Betty Crocker.
And I discovered why the rest of America has been searching so long in vain.
If others know how far out Betty Crocker actually lives and have no knowledge of these country back roads that can lead so quickly to endless wandering, it's no wonder they are looking at other ways of finding her, even while Betty Crocker is alive and well and living in Isle of Wight County.
General Mills for the last several months has been promoting the re-facing of Betty Crocker, the ficticious homemaker who first surfaced on General Mills products in 1921 - the woman who, with her helpful hints and encouragement, guided American women through the Great Depression.
For years, Betty was just a name. She first got a face in 1936. Over the years, she's changed in appearance, softened somewhat. She's always depicted in a prim suit, with perfect hair.
Now, the corporation that uses her image to promote products and cookbooks plans to use the images of 75 women - out of a batch submitted by contestants across America - and digitally meld them into the new Betty Crocker. A computer-generated image is expected to appear on cake mixes soon.
It leaves me kind of cold to think there will be so little human element left.
I could save General Mills a lot of time and money.
Our own Betty Crocker lives in a two-story, brick home with huge, white columns, on a country road. And she is everything America would expect her to be.
When I visited with her last week, she was dressed casually in slacks and a neat T-shirt. She was busy making bean soup with sausages for lunch and caring for a grandchild, home sick from school.
The local Crocker was born in Portsmouth, just a few years before the national Crocker got a face. Her parents were originally from Isle of Wight and returned to their roots in the farming community here when she was an infant.
This Crocker graduated from Windsor High School. During her junior year, she had a blind date with an Isle of Wight High School baseball player named John Raleigh Crocker.
Not until she had been married for several years, she admitted, did she realize who she was. After 45 years of being who she is, it's still entertaining.
``When I was out at the county fair, a lot of people mentioned that they were getting ready to do a new Betty Crocker,'' she said, laughing. ``I said, `Why are they looking? Here I am.' ''
Mother of five children and grandmother to several, Crocker is a farmer's wife. She can't recall that she ever did use the mixes the other Crocker promotes. She makes bread and cakes from scratch, pies from apples off the trees just outside her kitchen door.
In the farming tradition, she cooks a big lunch every day and serves it to her husband. He grows peanuts, corn and soybeans and raises livestock.
Crocker believes in tradition, and promoting farm life is one way she supports those beliefs. Both she and her husband have been active throughout their married life in the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation on both the local and state levels. In her work with the bureau women, Crocker has even gone into elementary schools.
``These children need to know where their food comes from and how it's grown. I went into a second grade classroom in Windsor a while back, and there was only one child in the class who actually lived on a farm. I imagine you could find plenty of classes in this county now where there are none.''
Crocker is active in her church, and is involved in missionary work on the Eastern Shore each summer.
It was through her church work that she finally got an official cook book bearing her name.
``I was working with a choir group, and one of them found out I didn't have the cook book,'' she said. ``I got it for Christmas.''
With her white hair, round face, wire-rimmed glasses and sweet, grandmotherly manner, Crocker is a perfect Betty. And she's perfectly content with the name. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by LINDA McNATT
Isle of Wight's Betty Crocker makes a big lunch every day for her
husband John, who's a farmer.
by CNB