Margaret rudkin biography

(1897-1967)
Pepperidge Farm Inc.

Overview

Margaret Rudkin achieved acclaim as one of America's most successful female entrepreneurs, during an era when being a housewife was considered the appropriate goal of a woman.

Her concern for her son's health prompted this already wealthy housewife to begin baking her own "health bread," and within 10 years her Pepperidge Farm ovens were producing thousands of loaves a day at a baking facility she designed herself.

Her business was later acquired by the Campbell Soup Company, which further expanded the successful brand of baked goods Rudkin had developed.

Personal Life

Margaret "Peggy" Rudkin was born Margaret Fogarty on 14 September 1897 in New York City, one of five children born to Joseph and Margaret Fogarty.

Her father drove a truck, and the family lived with their grandmother until Margaret was 12, when her grandmother died. The family then moved to Flushing, New York, where Rudkin later graduated from Flushing's