Dorothy Harmsen, 91, a Creator of the Jolly Rancher Candy Line, Dies
Dorothy Harmsen, who was a co-founder of the Jolly Rancher Candy Company, the maker of tangy, slowly dissolving bricks of fruit-flavored candy, and the owner of one of the nation’s largest private collections of art of the American West, died in Denver on Aug. 29. She was 91.
The cause was a heart attack, said her son, William D. Harmsen Jr.
Over a career in confections that spanned 50 years, Mrs. Harmsen and her late husband, William, created scores of original candies on their farm in Colorado, including chocolates, fruit chews, jelly beans and lollipops.
But it was the Jolly Rancher, an unembellished rectangular hard candy, that became the couple’s biggest contribution to the candy aisle. A top seller for every company that owned it — in the end, there were four — it earned a place alongside Life Savers as a household name in the often-overlooked hard candy business.
Mrs. Harmsen never intended to be a candy maker. In 1942, she and her husband, an airline pilot, moved onto a 10-acre ranch outside Denver, where they hoped to grow fruits and vegetables. But after several seasons of lackluster farming, they decided to start an ice cream shop.
Named the Jolly Rancher, to evoke Western hospitality, the store opened to strong sales in the summer months but struggled in the winter. So the Harmsens decided to add chocolate candy, which they produced in a barn on their farm. Soon candy sales far outstripped those of ice cream and the couple expanded their product line and work force.
Mrs. Harmsen managed the Jolly Rancher’s finances and operations in Colorado while her husband traveled the country marketing candy and becoming the public face of the brand.
He held the title of president and she was secretary-treasurer. But “she was the heart and soul of the operation,” said Pamela Whitenack, who oversees the archives at the Hershey Company, which bought Jolly Rancher in 1996.
Jolly Rancher became a family affair, drawing in the Harmsens’ three children, who dipped candy, handled paperwork and, seated at their kitchen table, became influential judges of new flavors and products.
Mrs. Harmsen is survived by three sons, William D. Harmsen Jr. of Banamichi, Mexico; Robert J. Harmsen of Arvada, Colo.; and Michael W. Harmsen of Lakewood, Colo.; and seven grandchildren.
The company’s first breakout confection, in 1950, was a spicy, cinnamon-flavored taffy called Fire Stix. Its strong sales encouraged the company to emphasize hard candies over chocolates, which faced stiff competition from established candy makers.
Fire Stix became a template for Jolly Rancher’s blockbuster product: rock hard when popped into the mouth, it melted slowly, releasing ever-more-intense flavor with each swirl of the tongue. It comes in several strong, distinctive flavors, including apple and watermelon.
Mrs. Harmsen, a proud Westerner who wore Indian jewelry and skirts, became a collector of regional art, including the work of Georgia O’Keeffe, Frederic Remington and Joseph Henry Sharp. She never finished college, but she wrote two widely used books about Western and Native American art.
In 2001, the Harmsens donated about 3,000 items, including 800 paintings, to the Denver Art Museum, more than doubling its Western art collection.
