Gender Female
Alice Stayer is the Founder at Johnsonville Sausage.Alice Stayer, who co-founded a little butcher shop with her husband that grew into a mouthwatering multimillion-dollar business called Johnsonville Sausage, died of natural causes Saturday at her home in Naples, Fla. She was 96.
Like her husband, she had humble roots. Alice Brinkman was born in
Ahmeek, Mich., one of 14 children. Her family moved to Milwaukee after the mine where her father worked shut down. She had a scholarship to attend college but turned it down and instead worked as a secretary to help support her family during the Depression.
She married Ralph F. Stayer in 1938. Both dreamed of owning their own business, and saved up to do it. With friends Carl and Hannah Hirsch, they founded Johnsonville Sausage in October 1945, naming it after the rural, unincorporated town where they set up shop.
