Did You Know the Woman Who Invented Stove Top Stuffing Was from Evansville?

I didn't either!  Until last night.  I was watching our friend Shelley Kirk with Eyewitness News.  During her Thanksgiving broadcast, she mentioned Ruth Siems.  Ruth is credited with inventing Stove Top Stuffing Mix and, yes, she was from Evansville.

Naturally, I Googled Ruth to find out more about her (Thank you, Wikipedia!).  Ruth was a graduate of Purdue University.  She was a "home economist" who developed the patent for the rehydration of bread crumbs.  Ruth worked for General Foods, where employees were challenged to develop a "stuffing" product for the masses.  Ruth's idea was chosen and Stove Top Stuffing Mix was born.

The product was first introduced to consumers and placed on store shelves in 1972. According to Kraft, the company that now owns the product, about 60 million boxes of Stove Top are sold each Thanksgiving.

As for Ruth, she was a graduate of Bosse High School and earned her degree at Purdue back in 1953.  She worked for General Foods for over 33 years and eventually retired in 1985.  Ruth passed away just before Thanksgiving in 2005.  She spend her final days in Newburgh, Indiana.