Mary Alice Powell

Mary Alice Powell, The Blade's first food editor, who contributed to the Toledo paper for 73 years, guiding home cooks and restaurant diners alike, died Thursday in her Grand Rapids, Ohio, home. She was 98.

She died of respiratory complications and other health issues, her caretaker Pat Berry said.

"She always took us on an adventure," Ms. Berry said. "She was full of stories, and her mind was always writing another story. She was always thinking about what her next story was going to be."

Ms. Powell started as a headline writer in 1953 and was promoted in 1955 by Marge McNab Block, The Blade's women's news editor and wife of then co-publisher Paul Block, Jr., to become the inaugural food editor.

"I don't believe there was anybody at The Blade who produced more work, more copy, more stories, was more organized, and on top of a subject more than Mary Alice," said John Robinson Block, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Blade. "And there was nobody more beloved."

Noting she ran a one-person department, Mr. Block added, "She knew everything there was to know. ... She was always correct, and in all the years, she was the go-to, complete encyclopedia, and authority."

In addition to her countless recipe stories, she answered reader questions in a tip column. Her role also included reviewing local restaurants for a time.

"Around 50 years ago, she got our attention by writing a not-so-favorable review, which rightfully so it was," said Labib Hajjar, co-owner of the Beirut. "It was good for us because it woke us up and made us pay attention to detail."

He added that her role was important to area restaurateurs.

"She was just so positive; she was always encouraging, even from when I first started at The Blade," said Barb Hendel, The Blade's society editor of more than 30 years, who said she spoke with Ms. Powell weekly.

"She knew everyone, and everyone knew her," Ms. Hendel said. "Every place she went, she would find another story."

She held the food editor position until her retirement in 1995. She spent the last several decades writing a weekly column for The Blade. It was her wish to have her final column run in the upcoming Sunday Blade.

"There has never been a more beautiful person that I've known, or a more loyal person to The Blade," Mr. Block said.

For her 97th birthday, it was her wish to visit The Blade office, her old stomping grounds, one last time. A teary-eyed Ms. Powell strolled into the newsroom last summer, enthusiastically pointing out desks and telling of her countless memories there.

Throughout her career, she met celebrity chefs including Julia Child and Martha Stewart - though she was somewhat of a celebrity herself.

"I speak for all the probably hundreds of thousands of readers over many years: We loved Mary Alice, and there was a bond with her that I think exceeds even the most popular TV characters," Mr. Block said.

Readers and colleagues remember her as professional, ethical, and true class act.

"She was always so kind to our restaurant and our family, but not only our restaurant," said John Mancy, 89, of Mancy's Steakhouse. "She always spoke positively of all restaurants. She lifted the whole industry."

Gus Mancy, co-owner of Mancy's Steakhouse, said Ms. Powell would come into the restaurant - or call him from time to time - to share the pride she felt for the family continuing the steakhouse's legacy. And when the Mancy family opened a new spot, she'd send a note of congratulations.

"She called it how she saw it," said Diane Rogers, co-owner of the former Syd & Diane's, the gourmet restaurant and grocery store in Perrysburg that closed in the early 1990s. "She knew food, and she knew service, and for that, she gets really high marks."

One of Ms. Powell's favorite local establishments was Byblos, the sister restaurant to the Beirut, and she celebrated many of her birthdays with its food.

"She loved the small, family restaurants and really helped in as many ways as she could," Mr. Hajjar said. "She was a great personality in this business, and people really followed her articles."

During her years as a food editor, she published five Blade cookbooks, held 20 Blade Food Fairs with 10,000 attendees each, and judged many local and national food events including the Pillsbury Bake-Off and the James Beard Book Awards, both in 1992.

"Of course, my favorite memory of her has always been the one where she cooked a pot roast in her engine," said Olivia Herrera, Blade news assistant, who has known Ms. Powell for 20 years. "She drove all the way from Ohio to Michigan somewhere."

Born July 25, 1928, in Adrian, to Milton Tennyson Powell and Hazel Mae Perkins, she graduated from Adrian High School, where she edited the school's paper.

After graduation, she worked as a bumper inspector at Gerity-Michigan Corporation until her high school English teacher encouraged her to apply for a cub reporter job at the Daily Telegram in Adrian, where she worked for six years before taking a job at The Blade.

"What would I have been doing since 1946 had this caring teacher not sensed my yearning to write ..." Ms. Powell wrote in a 1999 column, and in 2017, she added, "Her message was my invitation to a vocation that still inspires in me a desire to find stories about people and places that bring me happiness, and, hopefully, bring information to readers."

When she first worked in Toledo, she lived in the former Hamlin Hotel on Erie Street for $10 a week. She later bought a home on Posey Lake in her native Lenawee County before a reader left the Grand Rapids "Little Green Bungalow" to the beloved writer.

A world traveler, she visited Hawaii 22 times and has visited sites across Eastern Europe and South America, including Machu Picchu in Peru.

She loved cats and leaves behind her Russian Blue, Nadia, whom she adopted in the fall of 2024.

Ms. Powell has an honorary doctorate degree from Adrian College and was recognized with the Press Club of Toledo Lifetime Achievement Award and a lifetime achievement award from the Toledo and Northwestern Ohio Restaurant Association, among other awards.

"She gave us dignity and made us better," George Mancy said at a 1991 award ceremony. "... More than anyone else, she motivated us to excellence. There will never be another Mary Alice Powell."

The week of her retirement, then-Mayor Carty Finkbeiner read a proclamation at Toledo City Council designating March 31 as Mary Alice Powell Day and presented her with a commemorative goblet.

She was a former president of the National Food Editors conference and a founding member and former vice president of the National Association of Food Writers.

A proud journalist, her tombstone inscription reads, "There is always another story to write," and she wished to be buried with a pen and paper.

"How many stories, how many words have I written during those nearly eight decades doesn't count," Ms. Powell wrote in March. "It's the number of people that I have met."

Visitation will be Monday, August 3, 2026, from 2-7 pm and Tuesday, August 4, 2026, from 11 am-12 pm at Walker Funeral Home, 5155 W. Sylvania Ave. The Funeral Service will be Tuesday, August 4, 2026, at 12 pm. Interment will be Wednesday, August 5, 2026, at 11 am in North Dover Cemetery, 1400 S Hawkins Hwy, Clayton.