Green Bean Casserole Creator Dies

What's the one dish that is a must have for every Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner? Mashed potatoes, cheesy potatoes, okay, maybe, you could go on with dishes, but the venerable Green Bean Casserole is the one that seems to appear on every Holiday dinner table. It's been a staple comfort food for more than 60 years. But, there's some sad news here. CBS News.com reports the Green Bean Casserole creator has died.

Yes, there actually was a creator of the Green Bean Casserole. I mean, it had to come from somewhere, right? Sadly, she just recently passed away.

She was Dorcas Reilly, and as CBS News reported, a long-time employee of the home economics department of Campbell Soup, invented the recipe for the "Green Bean Bake" back in 1955.

Her combination of green beans, cream of mushroom soup, fried onions and seasonings was a near-instant hit with homemakers of the time, and remains one to this very day.

In fact, Campbell's predicts some 20 million of her Green Bean Bakes will likely be served at Thanksgiving this year.

As for Dorcas Reilly's original "bean bake" recipe card, it was donated to the National Inventors Hall of Fame back in 2002.

Dorcas Reilly was 92.