Local woman guesses first name of Mrs. Butterworth

The time has come for you to be on a first-name basis with that syrup bottle on your breakfast table.

Thanks to two women – one in Champaign and one in Indiana – we now know that Mrs. Butterworth's first name is Joy.

A contest sponsored by Pinnacle Foods Group, the syrup's manufacturer, asked contestants to guess Mrs. B's first name and give their own explanation for it.

Cynthia "Cindy" Harmon, 44, of Champaign and Shayla Doty, 15, of Logansport, Ind., were among seven of more than 8,000 entrants who guessed the right name. Judges liked both their explanations and declared them joint winners.

"I went back to the time 'she' was born, (1961) looked at the 10 most popular names for girls and 'Joy' was one," Harmon said. "I wrote about moms getting kids off to school and husbands off to work and bringing a little joy into their hearts."

Harmon has a husband, Peter, and three teenagers at home – John, 17; Alexa, 16; and Michael, 15.

She is a registered nurse, but now works full time as "administrator of my home and all three kids who have different schedules."

She said the case of syrup – "I asked for original; we want all the fat and butter" – she won would come in handy for frequent meals of pancakes and waffles that her family likes.

"It doesn't matter what time of day it is," she said. "Breakfast food can be cooked at any time."

The other reward, a check for $500, will be combined with another prize that Harmon won this summer.

"With my Pepsi points, I won the Rock Band 2 game," she said. "It retails for about $180, but we didn't have the Xbox 360 (Microsoft's second video game console) that is necessary for playing it. I bought the Xbox for about $340 and will use the rest (of the $500 Butterworth prize) on bills. I love to enter contests."

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