Queen of Funnel Cakes dies

‘Queen of Funnel Cakes’ dies at 96

Using her husband’s $96 vacation check, Alice M. Reinert opened a funnel cake stand at the Reading Fair in 1965 and launched a legend.

Over the next 26 years, “Dutchie” Alice would become the face of funnel cakes on the Pennsylvania county fair circuit and beyond.

Reinert, the self-described “Queen of Funnel Cakes,” died April 2 at age 96 in the home of her daughter, Mary Berger, in Blandon.

Berger recalled how the family would ride the fair circuit in summers, making funnel cakes in cast iron pans for hours on end.

“Making funnel cakes was a tough, hot business,” Berger said. “But what kept mom going was how much she enjoyed meeting people.”

A born promoter, Alice beckoned customers on the midway with slogans like “Get your Dutch funnel cakes here” and “Get in touch with the Dutch.”

For sure, Alice was not the first to make funnel cakes.

But she popularized the doughy wafflelike delicacies in demonstrations at Gimbels department store and on Philadelphia TV channels with personalities Sally Starr and Captain Noah.

In a 2010 interview with the Reading Eagle, while shying away from being called a feminist, Alice claimed to have been the first woman to own a stand on the midways of county fairs throughout the region.

“She was a driven woman in a man’s world,” said Larry Kressler, who worked at Alice’s stand for several summers. “I was one of five guys her family adopted every year.”

They traveled the fair circuit, Kressler recalls, and Alice paid for everything, including haircuts, and sent their paychecks home to their mothers. He considered her his traveling mom, Harlan his traveling dad and Mary and Shirley his traveling sisters.

“Her kindness was amazing. God bless Alice,” said Kressler 64, a former Bloomsburg resident who lives in California.

Starting in what she termed a tiny “chicken coop” of a building at the Reading Fair, Alice parlayed a knack for making funnel cakes she learned growing up on a Greenwich Township farm into a business that had three stands when she retired in 1991. She also operated a stand at the Leesport Farmers Market.

While she enjoyed success in business, her life was not without adversity, which she noted in her 2010 autobiography “From Pennsylvania Dutch Farm to Queen of the Funnel Cakes.”

An invalid 12-year-old son, Harlan Reinert Jr., died in 1961. She was his caregiver from birth, and went into business after his death. Her husband, Harlan, was stricken and died at the York County Fair in 1989.

Alice also wrote poetry and songs, and recorded 11 songs on an LP entitled “Alice.”

During that 2010 interview in her Blandon home, Alice sang a few lines from “Mama’s Little Angel,” which she wrote when her son was 8.

“Mama’s little angel, daddy’s little boy, came to us one day and filled our hearts with joy,” she sang, before being overcome by emotion and unable to continue.

MEDIANEWS GROUP Alice M. Reinert, the unofficial “Queen of Funnel Cakes,” operated stands on midways at county fairs for 26 years before retiring in 1991. She died April 2 at age 96 in Blandon. She is shown in 2010 when she wrote her autobiography “From Pennsylvania Dutch Farm to Queen of Funnel Cakes.”

COURTESY OF REINERT FAMILY A born promoter, Alice M. Reinert popularized funnel cakes at county fairs for 26 years before retiring in 1991. She died April 2 at age 96 in Blandon.

COURTESY OF REINERT FAMILY Alice M. Reinert, the unofficial “Queen of Funnel Cakes,” operated stands at county fairs for 26years before retiring in 1991. She died April 2 at age 96 in Blandon.

COURTESY OF REINERT FAMILY Alice M. Reinert, the “Queen of Funnel Cakes,” on the cover of a record album of songs she wrote. She died April 2 at age 96 in Blandon.