[Baltimore Sun] The Sue in Mary Sue eggs is a nun named Sister Susanne who lives in Elkridge
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Baltimore’s sweet taste buds gravitate toward the local favorite, Mary Sue brand Easter eggs. The buttercream eggs, made in Middle River, seem to recall the days of an Easter parade along Charles Street or Pennsylvania Avenue or a walk through the tulips and azaleas in Sherwood Gardens.
It turns out the eggs were named after two Baltimore children, a Mary and a Sue in the 1940s. They were sisters who both went on to become Roman Catholic nuns and devote their lives to helping others.
Sue is Sister Susanne Ashton, a member of the Sisters of Mercy, the religious order who founded downtown Baltimore’s Mercy Medical Center, Mercy High School and once ran Mount Saint Agnes College in Mount Washington.
Sister Susanne, the older of the two, became a nun in 1956. She taught for 10 years, then became a hospital administrator and earned a medical degree in 1978.
As a physician, she practiced in Leonardtown, St. Mary’s County, and Dahlonega, Georgia.
Stephen Roscher, a former Baltimore and Carroll County prosecutor, said: “Sister Susie was my science teacher in 6th and 7th grade, but my ‘everything’ teacher in 8th grade. She was the best teacher a kid could ever hope to have.”
The Mary in the candy egg name was Sister Mary Alice Ashton, who died in 2016.
Mary Alice Ashton was the younger of the two. As a nun, she taught at St. Anthony of Padua in Gardenville, St. Joseph School in Fullerton and St. Peter Claver in Sandtown-Winchester. She was a member of The Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia.
Sister Susanne Ashton, a Sister of Mercy and retired physician, holds a Mary Sue Easter egg. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Staff)
“She loved teaching the poor and the kids who were always in trouble,” said Sister Susanne of her sibling. “She could make them walk straight with a smile or a look.”
“She was able to give her students confidence,” Sister Susanne said. “She also taught them the discipline to go on with their lives. But with that discipline, she exhibited the fun of life.”
Both sisters were Baltimore natives and raised on St. George’s Road in North Roland Park. They were the daughters of Dr. Susanne Sterling Ashton, a Union Memorial Hospital obstetrician, and Robert J. Ashton, who owned thoroughbred horses.
About the eggs? During World War II, an Ashton family friend, “Uncle” Harry Gerwig and Samuel “Sacha” Spector, founded a candy business. Gerwig, who had no offspring, selected the names of the two Ashton sisters to form Mary Sue Candies.
“Racing was reduced during the war years and my father decided to invest a bit of money in the candy business,” she said.
For decades the candy eggs — as well as hard candies — were made in the Southwest Baltimore plant on Caton Avenue.
Mary Sue eggs were up against other candy egg makers in the 1950s, but it was a radio and television spot that put this brand on the map.
The jingle, which transposed the music of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “I’m Called Poor Little Buttercup” to “Here’s a treat that is sunny for your Easter bunny, The creamiest candy that’s made. Mary Sue Easter eggs, Mary Sue Easter eggs. Brighten your Easter parade.”
“There was a Mary Sue candy store at Bellona and York Road. We went there all the time and they gave us free candy,” said Sister Susanne. “But about the jingle, I was too young to know what it all meant. And when I went to the convent we never had Mary Sue Easter eggs.”
There were three Ashton brothers (no candy named for them): Robert, her twin, and William are deceased. Her brother Peter lives in the same retirement community in Elkridge.
As Baltimore restaurants open and close and locally made products disappear, Mary Sue Easter eggs have survived and thrived for more than 70 years.
William Buppert owns the Mary Sue brand and now makes them at a Baltimore County plant he opened in 2017 in Middle River to consolidate his candy-making operation.
“The Easter egg is a regional item and preferences change 100 miles from where you’re sitting,” said Buppert. “Every area has an Easter egg they think is the best. Because Easter was early this year, we ran out of a lot of items early.”
Buppert knows Sister Susanne well. She visits the candy plant and gets candy for her fellow sisters.
“I take them to our retirement house,” said Sister Susanne. “Bill Buppert has been charitable to me.”
What’s the most popular variety? Vanilla, coconut or peanut butter?
No. It’s the other one — pecan nougat.
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