This was from a 2007 issue of Wisconsin Cemetery and Cremation Association Newsletter.
(AP) A man widely believed to be the model for the smiling chef on Cream of Wheat boxes finally has a grave marker bearing his name.
Frank L. White died in 1938, and until recently, his grave in Woodland Cemetery (Michigan) bore only a tiny concrete marker with no name.
A granite gravestone was finally placed at his burial site. It bears his name and an etching taken
from the man depicted on the Cream of Wheat box.
When White died Feb. 15, 1938, the Leslie, MI Local Republican described him as a “famous
chef” who “posed for an advertisement of a wellknown breakfast food.”
White lived in Leslie for about the last 20 years of his life, and the story of his posing for the Cream of Wheat picture was known in the city of 2,000 located about 70 miles West of Detroit.
The chef was photographed about 1900 while working in a Chicago restaurant. His name was
not recorded. White was a chef, traveled a lot, was about the right age and told neighbors that he
was the Cream of Wheat model.
