Rose Totino

Rosenella Winifred Cruciani "Rose" Totino (January 16, 1915 – June 21, 1994) was an American entrepreneur and pizzeria owner whose frozen pizza business co-founded with her husband became the foundation for the Totino's brand. Rose become the first female vice president of a Fortune 500 company upon selling the Totinos brand to Pillsbury Company.

Biography Born on January 16, 1915, Rose was one of seven children to Italian immigrant parents. Her family settled in Minneapolis where she attended school until she dropped out at the age of 16 to help out with her family’s household expenses by cleaning houses.

Rose was a stay at home mother in the early years of her marriage. Despite having no sons, she became a den mother for a troop of boy scouts. As den mother, she became known for cooking delicious italian pies, later to be known as Pizza. After encouragement from friends, the Totinos began to consider opening a restaurant to serve Italian pies. Jim's job at a bakery was the only source of income for the Totino family, so the Totinos needed to apply for a loan. Using her bike as collateral and offering pizza slices as proof of concept to creditors, Rose and Jim secured a $1,500 loan to open a take-out pizza restaurant. In 1951, Rose and Jim used the loan to establish Totino’s Italian Kitchen in Northeast Minneapolis. By this time, both Rose and Jim had gone full time at the restaurant, later recounting that they were so tired at the end of their days, they would go to sleep without tallying up the money that they had made. Instead, they opted to throw their earnings in a bag to count up later. After the aqcusition, Rose was appointed Pillsbury’s first female Vice President. Rose’s grandson Steve Elwell bought Totino’s Restaurant in 1987 and still owns it today.