Shirley Hutton and Sue Zelickson built pioneering careers in broadcasting, business and food, opening paths other women would follow.
The deaths, four days apart during the first week of August, of two women who gained prominence in Minneapolis and beyond recall their vanguard roles in communications, cosmetics and the culinary arts.
One was glamorous and graceful. The other was gregarious and gracious. Both were married to prominent Minneapolis men, but each carved out a distinctive career of her own.
Each was a maven and a role model for women who followed in her path, making their deaths somber but worthy occasions for commemorating their achievements.
Hutton History
Shirley Hutton died Aug. 3 at age 96.
The beauteous woman from Willmar cut a striking pose wherever she went, even into her later years. But her physical beauty was only part of her success, which stemmed from her communications skills and business savvy in the cosmetics industry.
As a young woman, she competed in several beauty pageants, finishing near the top but not winning. Nonetheless, she fashioned a winning career as a model after attending Hamline University in St. Paul.
There she met and married another Hamline student, Joe Hutton Jr., eldest son of legendary Pipers basketball coach Joe Hutton Sr. The younger Hutton was a star guard on Hamline’s 1949 NAIA national championship team before playing two seasons for the Minneapolis Lakers, including their 1952 NBA championship season.
After leaving professional basketball, he coached at Minneapolis South and Minneapolis North before moving to Bloomington Lincoln, where he coached for two decades.
Shirley, meanwhile, was making her own mark through a high-profile modeling career and as a co-host of WCCO-TV’s Midday. She was among the women who helped crack the glass ceiling in local television.
Her daytime competition included Mel Jass, the chummy host of Mel’s Matinee Movie on WTCN-TV, Channel 11. Jass chatted with callers on a little black dial telephone during breaks in the B movies his station aired. Hutton interviewed celebrities, athletes and other notable guests at WCCO.
Her television work also led to a second and much more lucrative career. After interviewing Mary Kay Ash, Hutton joined Mary Kay Cosmetics in 1973.
Bolstered by the same communications and modeling skills that served her on television, Hutton rapidly rose through the company’s direct-sales ranks. She became an Independent National Sales Director in 1980 and was the company’s No. 1 national sales director for six consecutive years. Along the way, she set sales records and qualified for several of Mary Kay’s famous pink Cadillacs.
Hutton also wrote two books. Her 1988 book, Pay Yourself What You’re Worth: How to Make Terrific Money in Direct Sales, co-written with Constance DeSwaan, offered advice to salespeople, particularly women, seeking to improve their economic standing.
More than two decades later, MSNBC co-host Mika Brzezinski advanced a similar theme in Knowing Your Value: Women, Money, and Getting What You’re Worth.
In 2020, Hutton published Primed for Success: A Grandmother’s Legacy, an autobiographical collection written especially for her children and grandchildren.
Hutton raised four children and had 12 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. She is also survived by her husband, San Francisco businessman James Harris.
Her journey from the Kandiyohi County seat of Willmar to Minneapolis broadcasting, cosmetics royalty and authorship leaves a remarkable legacy for other women to follow.
Food Fun
The other departed Minneapolis maven was Sue Zelickson, whose communications skills helped launch her into the vanguard of food broadcasting.
The wife of prominent dermatologist Dr. Alvin “Al” Zelickson, who died in 2021, the matriarchal foodie died Aug. 7 at age 91, a little more than a month before her 92nd birthday.
A Minneapolis native and a diminutive product of Washburn High School and the University of Minnesota, Zelickson fashioned a career around making food enjoyable to prepare, discuss and, of course, eat.
She, too, was a WCCO alumna. While Hutton worked in television, Zelickson spent more than four decades at its “Good Neighbor” sibling, WCCO Radio, where she hosted Food for Thought and became one of the region’s first prominent food broadcasters.
She helped create a role that later evolved into a media landscape filled with celebrity chefs, cooking programs and entire television networks devoted to food. Her broadcasting earned wide recognition, including a James Beard Award for best local radio show.
Zelickson also spent 12 years as a columnist and contributing editor for Mpls.St.Paul Magazine before writing “Sue Z’s Finds” for Minnesota Monthly. She edited nine fundraising cookbooks and helped create the annual Food & Wine Experience.
When she was not engaged in those commercial and vocational pursuits, Zelickson was a philanthropist and indefatigable participant in community outreach.
In 1993, she founded Women Who Really Cook, a pioneering networking and support organization for women in the food and hospitality industries. She also founded Perspectives Kids Cafe, which taught cooking and nutrition skills to at-risk young people and their families.
Those efforts turned her interest in food into something larger than dining and entertainment. They created professional opportunities for women and gave young people practical skills that could serve them throughout their lives.
Zelickson is survived by two sons, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. She also leaves empty feelings among her many followers, although perhaps fewer empty stomachs because of all she taught them.
Minneapolis, Minnesota and the country are richer for having had Shirley Hutton and Sue Zelickson for so long, and poorer for their passing.
