Anna Short was born in 1897 in the Wallace area of Marlboro County, South Carolina.
[2][3][4] In 1935, Quaker Oats discovered her cooking pancakes at the New York State Fair in the Syracuse area.
[1][2][3][4] A November 1935 ad in Woman's Home Companion emphasized her Southern accent and dialect, saying "Let ol' Auntie sing in yo' kitchen.
[1][2][3][4] She had made enough money to purchase a 22-room house with a backyard bungalow on Monroe Street, in a segregated area known as the 15th Ward, at that time considered among the worst slums in the world.
The suit, which also named as defendants Pinnacle Foods and its former suitor Hillshire Brands, accused the companies of failing to pay Harrington and her heirs an "equitable fair share of royalties" from the pancake mix and syrup brand that uses her likeness and recipes.