Martha White is an American brand of flour, cornmeal, cornbread mixes, cake mixes, muffin mixes, and similar products.[1]
The Martha White brand was established as the premium brand of Nashville, Tennessee-based Royal Flour Mills in 1899.[2] At that time, Nashville businessman Richard Lindsey introduced a fine flour that he named for his daughter, Martha White Lindsey.[3]
The Martha White brand is probably most associated with its long-term sponsorship of the Grand Ole Opry, a radio program featuring country music.[2] The relationship began in 1948, and has existed continuously since then, making it one of the longest continually running radio show sponsorships known.[4]
A jingle for the flour, 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 jingle in 1953, and was performed from the stage of the Grand Ole Opry by bluegrass music artists Flatt and Scruggs.[2] It is still in use today, having become a bluegrass standard and a signature number of Rhonda Vincent and the Rage.[5] 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 trademarks "Hot-Rize" or "Hot-Rize Plus". Martha White has expanded its product offering beyond ingredients to include baking mixes.[citation needed]
Martha White merged with Beatrice Foods in 1975. In 1986, Beatrice, newly acquired by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, spun off its specialty foods and nonfood brands as E-II Holdings. E-II attempted to take over American Brands in 1988, but instead American Brands purchased E-II. Martha White was sold off in 1989.[citation needed]
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 acquired International Multifoods in 2004.[6] It was sold to Hometown Food, a division of Brynwood Partners, in 2018.[7]
