Mitzi Perdue

Mitzi Perdue (née Henderson; born 1941) is an American author, philanthropist, and anti-human trafficking advocate. She is an heiress to the Sheraton Hotel fortune and the widow of Perdue Farms president Frank Perdue. Perdue has had a multi-faceted career as a farmer, syndicated columnist, television host, and artist. Since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, she has focused on humanitarian efforts, including fundraising and establishing programs to combat human trafficking and provide mental health support in the region.

Early life and education Mary Henderson was born in 1941, the fifth and youngest child of Ernest Henderson, co-founder of the Sheraton Hotel chain. She lived in Lincoln, Massachusetts as a child and attended the Lincoln Public Schools. Perdue spent her childhood summers at the family's home, Knollwood, in Dublin, New Hampshire. At age 15, she worked for her father's company filing credit cards, an experience she found so tedious it motivated her to excel academically.

Following her father's death in 1967, Perdue and her siblings inherited his controlling stake in the Sheraton company at the age of 26.

Perdue's career as a columnist began after she, as a rice farmer, wrote a successful article for an inflight magazine that helped defeat a bill in the California State Legislature that would have banned the burning of rice straw.

Perdue is the author of several books, including two biographies of her late husband, Frank Perdue: Fifty Years of Building on a Solid Foundation in 1989 and Tough Man, Tender Chicken: Business & Life Lessons from Frank Perdue in 2014. She also authored an autobiography titled I Didn't Bargain for This!, and a book on family businesses, How To Make Your Family Business Last in 2017. She calls her creations "Eggscapes" and makes them from emu, rhea, and ostrich eggs, sometimes fashioning them into purses and other objects. In her capacity as a war correspondent, she is a freelance journalist for Psychology Today and the Foreign Press Association. She has also worked with the non-profit Silent Bridge to establish shelters for women at risk of being trafficked, including a facility in Lviv.

Perdue is developing a free, AI-powered mental health service accessible via smartphone for Ukrainians, a project she has collaborated on with Ukrainian professionals and retired U.S. Army general David Petraeus. She reported that in 2023, while returning from a trip to Ukraine, she was the target of an assassination attempt at a hotel in Poland. In 2025, Perdue announced plans to sell a set of dinner plates formerly owned by Alexander I of Russia to raise additional funds, describing the sale as an act of "cultural warfare." As of September 2025, she has been to Ukraine five times since the 2022 invasion.

Personal life Perdue's first marriage ended in divorce. From that marriage, she has two sons, Jose and Carlos Ayala. In 1988, she met Frank Perdue, head of Perdue Farms, at a political reception. They married later that year and she moved to Salisbury, Maryland. Their marriage lasted until his death in 2005.

Perdue is known for maintaining a frugal lifestyle, which she states helps her stay connected to "the real world." She is fluent in Spanish and French and also speaks Russian.