Jessie Young

Jessie Young (born Jessie Susanka; February 7, 1900 – September 12, 1987) was an American radio commentator and magazine publisher, widely acknowledged as the first of the radio homemakers.

Early life and career Born in Wahoo, Nebraska, the youngest of four daughters born to John Susanka and Rosa Cuhel. She attended Penn School of Commerce in Oskaloosa, Iowa. Hired initially as a singer, later renamed Jesse's Homemaker Visit. Described by food writers Jane and Michael Stern as "the archetype of the radio homemaker show," the program not only covered "the niceties of housekeeping," but "also created an easygoing radio companion listeners could depend on every day." Later that year, Young used her platform to stress the importance of women exercising their hard-won franchise in the upcoming presidential election.

On June 1, 1942, Young became the first host of WFIL's Kitchen Club in Philadelphia. The following year she and her family moved to Nebraska (first Lincoln and later Greeley), from whence Young broadcast her program for approximately twelve years, initially on KFAB and, beginning in 1950, on KLMS.

From 1946 through 1980, Young published the magazine Jessie's Homemaker Radio Visit, which, as of 1971, had approximately 10,000 subscribers scattered across all 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico and Canada. with whom she had four children, one adopted.

In June 1987, Young had a stroke from which she never recovered, dying on September 12, 1987, in Fort Collins, Colorado.