Marjorie Post wasn't just an heiress of the Post food empire, she was an astute businesswoman. The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post by Allison Pataki begins in Battle Creek, Michigan in 1891 when Marjorie's father was undergoing treatment at the Kellogg Sanitarium where John Kellogg was experimenting on patients with various food related "cures." After experiencing the breakfast rush of their boarding house landlady, where the Post family was residing, C.W. Post set about putting together his own concoction (grape nuts) to take some of the burden from housewives cooking breakfast every morning. Marjorie even at a young age was helping her father put together the cereal and sticking labels on containers.
The Post empire grew and Marjorie bought other businesses (including Birds Eye) amassed numerous homes (she built Mar-A-Lago) and collecting a few husbands along the way. But her desire for fine jewels and a luxurious life style didn't let her forget her humble beginnings and during the depression she opened soup kitchens in New York, providing both food and clothing and often jobs to those on the street. When the pressures of feeding and clothing the poor became too much she escaped from New York with her husband, Ned, and sailed the Caribbean in their new yacht! As food was always necessary, even during a depression, her business grew even more during that disastrous period. The Sea Cloud boat she leased to the navy for a nominal sum during WWII.
