Marjorie Johnson, Minnesota’s blue ribbon–winning baking darling whose persistence, good humor and impeccable bakes made her both a State Fair legend and a national television personality, died Oct. 30 at 106.
Since entering her first baking contest in 1974, Johnson amassed more than 3,000 state and county fair ribbons, more than 1,000 of them blue. Her success at the Minnesota State Fair led to an unlikely second career in front of the camera.
She became a regular on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” where she served as a guest correspondent and covered red carpets at events such as the Grammys and the Emmys, her sharp wit and humor as distinct as her petite frame and red lipstick. She also appeared on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” and “The Martha Stewart Show,” among others.
She walked so many red carpets she lost count, she told the Star Tribune in 2023. “About 200? 100? I was there a lot,” Johnson said. She always carried with her a basket of her homemade gingersnaps, which she used to entice celebrities to talk to her. It worked.
But Johnson’s national profile never eclipsed her local roots.
Born in Minneapolis in 1919, Marjorie Holtvey was the fourth of six daughters, growing up in the Jordan neighborhood. She learned to bake from her mother and made her first cake at the age of 8, she once told the Pioneer Press.
She graduated from North High School in 1937 and went to the University of Minnesota, where she studied home economics and met her future husband, LeRoy “Lee” Johnson. At 6 feet tall, he was a formidable match to her 4-foot-9 inches.
The Johnsons bought a Robbinsdale split-level home in 1968. It was in that lake-view kitchen where she often stayed up all night developing and perfecting recipes that would go on to win over fair judges, well into her 11th decade.
