Few things will identify someone as Southern as clearly as a love for tomato sandwiches. If you want to get an intense conversation started, open the topic of which mayonnaise is preferred. You could ignite a debate as fiery as college football or politics, but, in the South, you are likely to get a passionate endorsement of one particular product, Duke’s Mayonnaise.
Eugenia Duke was an entrepreneur in the truest sense of the word. She was born in 1881 in Columbus, GA, one of ten children. When she was 19, she married Harry Duke, an electrician. Harry worked setting up power plants across the Southern states, and they eventually landed in Greenville, SC
In 1917, troops were training to enter WWI at nearby Camp Sevier. Eugenia saw an opportunity to add income for the family. Along with her daughter, Marta, she began making sandwiches in her kitchen and selling them for ten cents each at the canteen. She also created her own mayonnaise. Known for its tangy flavor, it was made with cider vinegar, oil, and eggs. There was no sugar included, possibly from a lack of availability due to wartime rationing.
Demand snowballed, and soon Eugenia’s sandwiches were sold in various locations, like textile mills, drugstores, and lunchrooms. The favorites were egg salad, chicken salad, and pimento cheese. Legend has it that she once sold 10,000 sandwiches in one day, which paid for the addition of a delivery truck.
She decided to open her own location in the Ottaray Hotel in Greenville. A City Directory from the 1920s lists her as the President and Treasurer of the Ottaray’s Duke Tea Room. Amid this whirlwind of business activity, Duke also involved herself in the efforts to pass the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote. She began hosting tea parties in the hotel lobby, which featured her sandwiches made with her mayonnaise.
Getting numerous requests for her recipes from her soldier customers who were now stationed around the world and with the encouragement of her top salesperson C.B. Boyd, in 1923, she decided to bottle and sell her mayonnaise. She opened an office on the second floor of a furniture store and began manufacturing mayonnaise in an old coach and carriage factory.
By 1929, her mayonnaise had grown so popular that she could not keep up with the demand. She sold her mayo business to the C.F. Sauer Company in Richmond, VA., but remained with the company as a spokesperson. She sold her sandwich business to her bookkeeper, Alan Hart. Both companies continue to operate near Greenville today.
Andrew Smart, the current President of Duke Sandwich company, says, “Here’s a woman in 1917, who was an entrepreneur and business leader in a time before she even had the right to vote.” Bill Donahue, former Director of Marketing for Duke Brands, says, “She was a presence in downtown Greenville, active in women’s rights and a socialite.”
Daughter Martha married a soldier from Los Angeles and moved west. Eugenia and Harry soon followed, moving to Oakland, CA. Within a year of their arrival, Eugenia opened a new venture, the Duchess Sandwich Company. When WWII began, she started selling her sandwiches at a shipyard to the workers. The Duke’s eventually sold that company to family members. Eugenia passed away in 1968, at age 90. In 2018, the City of Greenville named a pedestrian bridge after Duke.
