Paddleford, Clementine

“We all have hometown appetites. Every other person is a bundle of longing for the simplicities of good taste once enjoyed on the farm or in the hometown [he or she] left behind.” So wrote Clementine Paddleford (1900–1967), one of the best-known food editors in the United States whose writing legacy is largely unknown to modern audiences. Born 27 September 1898, on a Stockdale, Kansas, farm, Clementine Haskin Paddleford’s view of food was shaped in her mother’s kitchen, where the food was simple, delicious, and rooted in local tradition. Paddleford grew up in a small town, regularly attending a country church and a country school. She was a tomboy and a determined child who was interested in writing letters and telling stories from an early age. By the time she was fifteen, Paddleford was turning out town news reports for the Manhattan, Kansas, Daily Chronicle. As a teen, her family moved off the farm into the neighboring town of Manhattan, where Paddleford attended Kansas State University and graduated with a degree in journalism.