Marilyn Hagerty. Courtesy of The Grand Forks Herald.
Small-town North Dakota newspaper columnist Marilyn Hagerty died last week at the age of 99. She went viral in 2012 for her earnest review of the “long-awaited” new Olive Garden in her neighborhood.
At the time, Keri Mitchell and Christina Hughes Babb, who then masterfully covered harder-edged subject for this magazine, jokingly ribbed me for being “the Marilyn Hagerty of The Advocate” — that is, the girl more likely to look for the positive when describing new restaurants and other community businesses, rather than seeking to be cleverly disparaging.
Guilty. And 13 years later, I’m still guilty. (I’ve been writing for Advocate Magazine for almost 20 years.)
Gail Hagerty said her mother died at a hospital in Grand Forks from complications related to a stroke, but she remembered her as a journalist at heart, more interested in giving readers an honest assessment of what to expect from a restaurant than in being critical.
Her article was “unique and authentic, coming from a grandmother in North Dakota,” Gail said.
“The place is impressive,” Marilyn gushed in her 2012 article about Olive Garden. “It’s fashioned in Tuscan farmhouse style with a welcoming entryway. There is seating for those who are waiting.”
She had praise, too, for local employees at the international chain.
“(My waitress) first brought me the familiar Olive Garden salad bowl with crisp greens, peppers, onion rings and yes — several black olives. Along with it came a plate with two long, warm breadsticks. The chicken Alfredo ($10.95) was warm and comforting on a cold day. The portion was generous. My server was ready with Parmesan cheese.”
Marilyn’s review spread quickly to a national audience via social media, and she became the darling of morning shows and chat shows. Audiences were charmed by her unsophisticated positivity.
“She was everywhere and she loved it and it was a wonderful experience, although she had to ask my brother what does it mean if you go viral. She didn’t know that,” Gail said. “She used to say that if you were going to have 15 minutes of fame and if you were 86, you had to do it soon. You couldn’t wait.”
Marilyn returned to the Olive Garden eight years later, where she admitted that some had ridiculed her naïve assessments.
“It was fun and it was kind of funny, and yet after all the bombasting I got from sophisticated people around the country, I started getting messages from places like Waterloo, Iowa, and little towns in Colorado, and they’d tell me they had an Olive Garden and they liked it too,” she told the Today Show.
Marilyn later wrote a book, entitled “Grand Forks: A History of American Dining in 128 Reviews.” The late Anthony Bourdain — legendary in food circles — edited the book and wrote the foreword. He called himself her biggest fan.
“She is never mean — even when circumstances would clearly excuse a sharp elbow, a cruel remark. In fact, watching Marilyn struggle to find something nice to say about a place she clearly loathes is part of the fun,” he wrote. “She is, unfailingly, a good neighbor and good citizen first — and entertainer second.”
Marilyn was born May 30, 1926, in Pierre, South Dakota. Her career in newspaper reporting began in high school, when she wrote city briefs as assistant editor of the Pierre Capitol Journal, according to NBC News.
She was proud of her journalism degree from the University of South Dakota, and she was a journalist worthy of admiration and emulation, making great effort to get to know the people of her community for more than 70 years. She continued writing for the Grand Forks Herald on occasion until last year.
