Mabel White Holmes was born in 1890 in Mattoon, Illinois to a mill owner, E.K White, who had founded a flour mill which was incorporated as the Chelsea Millng Company in 1901. Mabel was involved in the mill and flour industry from a young age. She graduated Chelsea High School in 1907 and went on to pursue higher education at Eastern Michigan University, then known as Ypsilanti Normal College, before becoming a school teacher in Illinois. In 1908, White sold the company to Mabel's father-in-law, Harmon Holmes. Mabel's husband, Howard Holmes, ran the company until his death in 1936, after which she became company president Holmes first got the idea for a prepared, all-purpose baking mix in the late 1920s when she saw the poor quality of a biscuit made by the widowed father of her sons' friends. Family legend says she aimed to develop a product that would save time in the kitchen and be so easy that "even a man" could make it. Jiffy Biscuit Mix was introduced in 1930 as America's first prepared, all-purpose baking mix, named "Jiffy" because it was quick to prepare. While Bisquick has been accredited as the first baking mix on the market, Jiffy Mix was released first, making it the first all-purpose baking mix in America. Today, the Jiffy brand includes mixes for many baked goods, from biscuits to pizza dough, although their staple item is still the corn muffin mix. Holmes was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in 2015.