Red Oak Cemetery / Aunt Jemima

Established in 1798, the picturesque church is situated among 200-year-old oak and sycamore trees. These days the church door, cinched with an old-time brass skeleton key, is only open for Sunday morning services. However, in the late 1700’s, this door was open year-round. Historical records mention Red Oak Presbyterian Church's involvement in the Underground Railroad movement and for over 100 years the church’s congregation has included whites as well as blacks.


As well, the church’s adjacent cemetery includes markers bearing the family names of those descending from formerly enslaved persons who settled around Red Oak. Rosa Washington Riles is buried there. For over 25 years, simple copper pipes marked her grave. A piece of metal dangled from the piping and adhesive letters formed the name “Aunt Jemima.” Using the meager profits from its annual pancake breakfast, the community purchased a brown marble headstone for Riles's grave. The unaffected piping remained until just recently.

Rosa Washington Riles, portrayed Aunt Jemima. Riles was born in 1901 in Red Oak, Ohio, a small farming community located 50 miles east of Cincinnati. In her mid-30s, Riles left Red Oak to work for the Quaker Oats Company. Quaker Oats hoped to bolster the public’s interest in their self-rising pancake mix by bringing their trademark to life. During the Depression, major newspapers carried Help Wanted Ads, seeking several dozen attractive black women to dress as Aunt Jemima and travel the nation, giving cooking demonstrations with Quaker Oats’ self-rising pancake mix.


Some of the women who portrayed the “real-life” Aunt Jemima gained national popularity; others, like Rosa Washington Riles, did not.