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Legendary Fallingwater cook Elsie Henderson dies at 107 | TribLIVE.com
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Legendary Fallingwater cook Elsie Henderson dies at 107

Paul Guggenheimer
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Joyce Hanz | Tribune-Review
Elsie Henderson

She famously cooked for the Kaufmann family at Fallingwater, was the object of Frank Lloyd Wright’s flirtations and later shared her recipes on television and in print. Elsie Henderson, a lifelong Pittsburgher, has died. She was 107.

Henderson served as the cook, baker and meal planner from 1947 to 1963 at Fallingwater, the family weekend retreat for Pittsburgh department store mogul Edgar J. Kaufmann, his wife, Liliane, and their son, Edgar Jr.

“The passing of Elsie on March 20 marks a tremendous loss for all of us, but through her wonderful stories and recipes, the rich culinary history she created will forever live on as a remarkable and treasured part of the Fallingwater story,” Fallingwater director Justin W. Gunther said in a statement released Monday.

“Along with being a talented cook, Elsie was a wonderfully charismatic and passionate person, and she built lasting relationships with the Kaufmanns and Fallingwater. Even after the house became a museum, Elsie frequently visited with the museum’s staff to share her love of Fallingwater and strong affection for the Kaufmanns.”

In addition to the Kaufmanns, Henderson spent years cooking for the Heinzes, Mellons and even the Kennedys, spending a summer at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Mass.

“We’ll put Ethel (Kennedy) at the top of the list. She was wonderful,” Henderson said of the wife of the late Robert F. Kennedy in a 2019 interview with the Tribune-Review.

Henderson became used to rubbing elbows with the famous and well-to-do of the world, even sharing a story with the Trib about Frank Lloyd Wright, the architect of Fallingwater who visited in 1956. There had been some damage to a portion of the building, and Wright had been called out to see about fixing it. Henderson drove with the chauffeur to pick up Wright at the airport.

“He asked me what I did at Fallingwater and called me a ‘young lady.’ He was flirtatious and told me if the food at Fallingwater was as good as I looked, then he would be good,” Henderson said. “He was a bit fresh, but well-behaved.”

Elsie Redmon, later Elsie Lee and then Elsie Henderson, was born at home in Mt. Washington on Sept. 7, 1913, the youngest of 13 children born to Ada and Thornton Redmon. Elsie’s father died when she was 2, and her mother, a Southerner, bore the responsibility of providing for her large family.

Elsie was close to her mother and was always by her mother’s side in the kitchen, learning to bake and cook, skills that would serve her well later in life.

But after leaving high school after 11th grade to help her family make ends meet, the first job she landed was at Kaufmann’s department store in the bad accounts department.

When Liliane Kaufmann placed a newspaper ad looking for a cook, Henderson applied. She interviewed with Mrs. Kaufmann. She was hired on the spot, even though she had never had any formal culinary training. The moment dramatically changed the course of her life.

The time Henderson spent learning her mother’s cooking secrets enabled her to flourish in the kitchen at Fallingwater. She made lamb, Cornish hen and Wright Crab Salad, named for the flirtatious architect. She also whipped up specialty desserts such as clove and daffodil cakes.

Back then, the butler at Fallingwater cooked the meats and seafood, while Henderson handled breakfast, lunches, side dishes and desserts. But it was liver and onions that helped her form a special bond with Edgar Kaufmann.

“No one else in the family would eat liver and onions, but Mr. Kaufmann loved it. We would sit at the table and eat together because we both loved liver and onions,” Henderson said.

For most of her life, Henderson had come face to face with the indignities of racism. But the Kaufmanns were different and treated her like family, she said. She ran the kitchen, and her judgment was trusted. She was free to purchase items and plan meals as she saw fit. When she needed to go to Pittsburgh or anywhere else, Henderson, who never learned to drive, always had chauffeurs at her disposal.

Henderson, who lived in a private room in the servants’ quarters section at Fallingwater, said she was paid “very well” for someone who worked only weekends but received wages for the entire week.

“I made $18 a weekend back then — a lot of money. Mr. Kaufmann liked to hand out bonuses,” Henderson said.

Liliane Kaufmann died in 1952 and Edgar Kaufmann passed away three years after that, but Henderson stayed on as cook for Edgar Kaufmann Jr. Her time at Fallingwater ended in 1963 when he transitioned the house from a private residence to a public museum with the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.

But Henderson’s recipes live on in “The Fallingwater Cookbook: Elsie Henderson’s Recipes and Memories,” written by Suzanne Martinson and published in 2008.

She also made frequent appearances as a guest cook on the WQED-TV program “QED Cooks” hosted by Chris Fennimore, who recalled that Henderson made “terrific” salmon cakes during her first appearance.

“She says, ‘I used to make these, and Edgar liked my salmon cakes, and we would wait until his wife was out of town to have them.’ And she’s telling all these family stories about the Kaufmanns, actually pretty intimate stories,” Fennimore said. “She had a very, very close family relationship with the Kaufmanns, with Edgar and his wife and their son. She wasn’t just the cook; she was in charge of everything.”

Fennimore said that even when Henderson did not appear on the show, she would send baked goods. “She was a wonderful baker. She would make these little cinnamon cakes and wrap each one individually.”

Henderson was the guest of honor at a private birthday luncheon celebration in September 2019. Fallingwater staff treated her to lunch and a custom birthday cake, surrounded by family and friends, while seated at the head of the same table the Kaufmanns gathered around for weekend meals at Fallingwater.

“Elsie said that before she left this Earth, she wanted to see Fallingwater again. The visit brought back good memories for her,” said Cheryl Carter, the wife of Henderson’s nephew Arthur Carter.

By this time, Henderson was living at Vincentian de Marillac, a senior care home in Stanton Heights that she called home after living independently until age 105.

Henderson married twice but didn’t have children.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

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