Strawberry Bread, Dru Gladden

Drusilla “Dru” Gladden was maybe not the most prominent Eastern Shore woman I’ve researched, but hers is the type of story and recipe I like to uplift in my work – everyday people – and in this case, a prized local ingredient.

Dru Gladden liked gospel music and lighthouses, according to her 2023 obituary. At her church, Delmarva Evangelistic Church, she “contributed to the creation of three beloved cookbooks.”

None of those three cookbooks are in my collection. My recipes of Dru Gladden come care of the Eastern-Shore-famous “What Is Cooking On Party Line” cookbook. It’s a whopper of a book with nearly one thousand recipes from 425 different people, presumably mostly listeners of radio personality Bill Phillips’ Party Line program. People called Party Line to buy, sell, swap, and to chat. In the process, they formed an extended community. I don’t know of any recordings of a Party Line program, but the cookbook was and is a beloved regional collection. When a reader contacted me looking for a copy of the book, I scanned it in its entirety and uploaded it to Internet Archive.

Strawberry Bread is a good snack recipe, and I have a few variations in my database. It can be made with thawed frozen strawberries, but is great to have on hand during strawberry season in case you got over-ambitious at the farmers’ market or a truck sale.

Dru Gladden surely knew her way around a strawberry, having been born in the aptly-named Fruitland in 1938. Although the Maryland strawberry industry was on the wane by that time, it still lingered, and plenty of the fruit was packed onto trains and shipped elsewhere. Decades earlier, Maryland hosted the highest acreage of strawberry farming in the nation.

Gladden’s family was in the hardware business. Her grandfather, Alonzo R. Conley, had designed and built ships. In 1972, Dru’s mother Ethel told the Salisbury times “Alonzo R. could do just about anything in building with wood,” but that her husband Alonzo J. “turned out to be one of the best, too. He could take an adze and shape up any timber.”

Alonzo Jr. helped his father caulk the sides and deck” of the “White,” a much-heralded 197-foot ship built in 1917. “It was a big day in Sharptown when [the White] was launched and school was closed down for the event. Everybody went. They said it was the biggest sailing ship ever built in the Sharptown yards, and they had built many a one,” recalled Ethel Conley.

Mrs. Conley posed for the article with a painting of the ship her husband, Dru’s father, had helped build. Alonzo J, who went by James, had died in January of that year, leaving the hardware store operation to Ethel.

Being a woman running a hardware store was apparently a thing to marvel at in the 1970s, and the Daily Times ran a story on Ethel Conley in 1974. “How many women know what they’re talking about when it comes to hammers, nuts, bolts, and brackets?,” asked writer Reenie Swietlik. Probably more than you’d think, Irene!

Ethel didn’t bat an eye. “Women are brighter today. They’re out more, they see more and they know more,” she asserted. When Ethel Conley needed to hire help in the store, she hired a woman. “Can two women sell hardware?” asked Swietlik. “Mrs. Conley thinks so.” Well, I would think she’d be the one to know, Irene!!!

Drusilla had married Elbert Gladden in 1957, and when Ethel’s home burned down in 1974, she moved in with the Gladdens. Elbert was in construction, also worked on boats, and owned a dozen skipjacks throughout his life. In 2011, Dru and Elbert’s sons were profiled in the Daily Times for restoring a historic skipjack, the Ida May.

Dru’s 2023 obituary credits her with founding Gladden Construction alongside Elbert. The company is now run by their grandchildren.

Aside from boats and hardware, sports were also a big thing in the Gladden family. Elbert’s 2011 obituary mentioned his construction company but said that he was “probably best known for his sports achievements” at Deal Island School.

Dru coached her daughters’ Denise and Sandy’s softball teams and “was a steadfast supporter of her husband’s fastpitch softball endeavors.”

“She was always ready to make you a meal and when she made a meal she made enough for an army,” Dru Gladden’s obituary said. Perhaps I’ll eventually come across more of the recipes that gave her “her ability to make any gathering special with her cooking.” Or perhaps, her three Party Line contributions will be all I ever know.

Recipe:

• 2 10 oz packages strawberries, thawed
• 4 eggs
• 3 Cups all-purpose flour
• 3 Teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 Teaspoon salt
• 1.25 Cup salad oil (vegetable oil)
• 2 Cups sugar
• 1 Teaspoon baking soda
• 1 Cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans, set aside. In medium bowl stir thawed strawberries, eggs, and oil. In large bowl combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and nuts. Add strawberry mixture to dry ingredients and stir just until blended. Pour into pans. Bake 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Makes two loaves about 195 calories per 1/2 inch slice.

Recipe from What Is Cooking On Party Line. Bill Phillips. Broad Creek Printing. 1983.