Ruth McKee was known to her 11 grandchildren simply as Grammy.
To the business world, she was something considerably more.
Decades before women commonly occupied leadership roles in American companies, McKee was managing plant operations, keeping the books and purchasing ingredients and packaging for the fledgling bakery she operated with her husband, O.D. McKee.
But when granddaughter Debbie Fowler reflected on McKee’s life Oct. 2 at Southern Adventist University, it wasn’t her grandmother’s business acumen she identified as her defining characteristic. It was the way she treated people.
“Grammy lived every single day with a simple motto: Treat everyone with dignity and respect,” Fowler said.
Fowler shared memories of her grandmother during the grand opening of Southern’s new $24 million Ruth McKee School of Business, named for the woman who helped build what eventually became McKee Foods.
O.D. and Ruth McKee met while students at what was then Southern Junior College in the 1920s. They married and went into business together, enduring lean years before their bakery eventually grew into one of the Chattanooga area’s largest manufacturing employers.
While O.D. became the more visible half of the partnership, Fowler said the family understood the extent of her grandmother’s contribution.
“While many knew my grandfather as the public face of the business, our family always knew that Grammy was the quiet backbone of the bakery’s success,” she said.
A steady hand in difficult years
Those early years were far removed from the success the company would later enjoy. At one point, the McKees lived inside their bakery, using hanging sheets as walls.
Through the difficulties, Fowler said, her grandmother provided “a steady hand and determination” that helped hold both the family and the business together.
Fowler recalled a pivotal moment in the company’s history involving her father, Ellsworth McKee, who proposed selling individually wrapped products together in cartons.
At the time, Fowler said, bakery products were generally sold individually for a nickel or dime. Ellsworth repeatedly tried to persuade his father to adopt the new approach, but O.D. remained unconvinced because another company leader opposed it.
Then Ellsworth persuaded his mother.
“Once Dad got Grammy talked into the concept, she took care of things and the family pack idea was born,” Fowler said.
Her grandmother exercised a similar influence in company board meetings, Fowler said.
After Fowler joined the board in the early 1980s, she watched Ruth listen as others debated the advantages and disadvantages of proposals.
Fowler compared what happened next to commercials for the brokerage firm E.F. Hutton that were popular at the time: When E.F. Hutton talked, people listened.
The same was true of her grandmother.
“It would be voted up or down based on her recommendation,” Fowler said.
Faith expressed through action
Fowler said her grandmother’s Christian faith shaped the way she conducted business, sometimes producing decisions that put principle ahead of convention.
One example came after the McKees bought back their plant on Dodds Avenue in Chattanooga in the mid-1950s.
Among Ruth McKee’s first actions, Fowler said, was removing signs designating separate water fountains and restrooms for Black and white employees.
“To her, those signs were contrary to the teachings of the Bible, which requires us to view everyone as equal in God’s sight,” Fowler said.
The same convictions influenced McKee’s relationships with the people who did business with the bakery.
Fowler said her grandmother insisted on honesty and fairness from suppliers but also stood up for them during difficult crop years. She refused to do business with suppliers who mistreated the bakery’s drivers.
McKee could be formidable, too.
Fowler recounted a family story from the bakery’s early days, when Ruth heard what she believed was an intruder inside the plant while O.D. was away selling products.
She picked up a rifle and went to investigate.
Only at the last moment did she recognize the distinctive walk of her husband, who had returned earlier than expected.
“She certainly wasn’t lacking in courage,” Fowler said.
More than a businesswoman
For Fowler, however, Ruth McKee’s influence extended well beyond the bakery.
She described her grandmother as a teacher at heart who encouraged her family to continue learning, improve themselves and use what they learned to serve others.
McKee also maintained individual relationships with each of her 11 grandchildren and prayed for her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and company employees, Fowler said.
The depth of employees’ affection for McKee became especially evident after her death on June 25, 1989, at age 82.
Bakery drivers served as honorary pallbearers at her funeral, while others pulled their trucks over along the highway as the funeral procession passed.
Fowler became emotional as she recalled what happened next.
“Our drivers that were on the freeway pulled their trucks next to each other and stopped traffic while the procession went by on the freeway.”
A name carried forward
Nearly four decades after Ruth McKee’s death, her name now appears on a business school at the university where she and O.D. first met.
The connection between the McKees and Southern stretches back decades. In 1956, after a fire destroyed Southern’s furniture-making operation, the college constructed a building it leased to the McKees for a bakery, creating jobs that helped students pay for their education.
Now Fowler hopes students entering the school bearing her grandmother’s name will carry something of Ruth McKee with them when they leave it.
“As McKee Foods continues in its 92nd year, our greatest hope is that the students who pass through these doors of the new school of business will carry forward her legacy of integrity, faith in God, hard work, and the biblical value of service,” Fowler said.
For Fowler, those qualities can be reduced to the simple rule her grandmother practiced throughout her life: Treat everyone with dignity and respect.