She pedaled her bike up and down the square (with apologies to MP’s “The Meaning of Life”) selling cookies and other sweet goodies.
Her trademark was the corny rhymes that she called out, like:
“Nice and sweet–Key West treat,” and
“Chocolate brownies–yum, yum, yum. Yield to temptation and get you some.”
You get the idea.
Anyway, while I was on vacation, I found that the “Cookie Lady” was no longer there, and one of the museums on KW (East Martello) had a showcase of some of the local legends–one of whom was “Cookie Lady.”
They even had her bike.
So, is anyone familiar with her? If so, do you know what happened to her?
The last time I was there was 9 years ago, and I realize that a lot can happen in that amount of time.
I’ve been there twice, once in 1993 and once in 1995. Never saw her. Spent a total of probably eight days there…I’m pretty sure I would have seen her if she was there. Unless she was on vacation
COOKIE LADY PUBLISHES RHYME AND RECIPE BOOK Practical & whimsical nostalgia from Key West
“Key West sweet, Key West treat, get one and we both can eat!” Sound familiar?
The Cookie Lady of Key West has authored a book, Rhymes & Recipes, that is available for purchase online. Readers can recapture and reminisce, enjoying some of the rhymes and baking the original-recipe goodies that were in the basket on the cookie lady’s bicycle at Mallory Square in the 80s & 90s.
Mark Rossi, Key West city commissioner and owner of the Rick’s/Durty Harry’s complex, said in an interview “This town’s changed considerably. It’s not the funky Key West that it used to be with ‘the cookie lady’ and ‘conch salad Frank’ and ‘the iguana man’ and ‘Monkey Tom’…”
Since that time, Marilyn Kellner, The Cookie Lady of Key West, has worked as a graphic artist. She has employed her professional skills to design and layout the book. In addition to the recipes and rhyme, the book offers history and a few surprises. In preparation, she baked all the recipes again to make certain proportions and baking times were correct and to photograph all the baked goods for the book.
Marilyn spends part of the year in Key West and part in Cleveland, Ohio.
It’s considered spam to sell things on this message board outside the Marketplace forum w/o permission from the administration. Your links are posted for you to sell things.
Using our board to promote your books and websites is considered spam. I have deleted the promotional links in your post but will allow the post to be visible.
I encourage you to explore our community further, rather than treating us simply as a pool of potential customers.
Wow, how time flies. Since this posting, I’ve been back to Key West twice (1999 and 2008), and although I didn’t see Cookie Lady either time, on the last trip, as I stopped in Harpoon Harry’s, I asked the locals about her, and they informed me that they had seen her just a few weeks earlier.
