My Memories Of Dixie Lee Bakery And WWII On The Raritan Bayshore

KEANSBURG, NJ — If you live on the Bayshore, you know Dixie Lee Bakery, in business for the past 86 years.

But here's a story about a Monmouth County woman as old as the bakery itself, and a period of time on the Bayshore that is gone and may never come back.

"I don't say I'm old. I say I've gotten older," sniffed Elsie Van Dusen, born Elsie Kelly in 1937 in a tiny house in Keansburg.

The family lived just two doors down from the Main Street bakery and they moved there because her father had a new job: He was going to be the Dixie Lee bakery deliveryman.

This meant Elsie's father picked up all the breads, cakes and pies that Keansburg residents ordered and dropped them off at their door. As the bakery's popularity grew, his route went as far as Leonardo and the Cliffwood Beach section of Aberdeen.

"It was like a milkman route but for a bakery," she explains, speaking from her home in Howell. "People would order their apple crumb cake for dessert after Sunday dinner. And their 'snowflake buns' were very popular. It was like a sweet bun that was particularly good with leftover sliced meats for a sandwich, like pork or a pot roast."

She still has a menu from the time: "Apple crumb square 5 cents. A loaf of bread 10 cents. We specialize in birthday & wedding cakes: $1.35 and up.”

Her father, Edward, became good friends with the Slovenz family, the original founders of Dixie Lee.

He loved the job.

"Daddy knew everybody in Keansburg," she recalled. "He knew if Mrs. So-and-So didn't have money to buy anything but bread that week, so he would leave a plate of fresh cookies for her kids. If people couldn't pay, he still gave them their order and kept track of what was owed in a little black book. Years after he died, my Mom found that book and started laughing. She said 'Now I know why we were always poor; your father never made anyone pay!'"

What seemed like an idyllic childhood would quickly be shattered.

In 1941, World War II came to America. Thousands of men along the Raritan Bayshore were drafted to fight the Nazis in Europe. In only a few years Nazi U-boats would again be seen slinking in the Atlantic Ocean right off Sandy Hook (they were also there in World War I). Elsie's father and his three brothers were all drafted, and all were eager to serve.

Of the four brothers, only her father was rejected after a military physical revealed he had "bad ears."

The other three Kelly brothers were sent to Europe. The baby brother of the family, Benjamin, never returned home. He was killed at the age of 22, in the U.S. invasion of France.

"I remember that day like it was yesterday," said Elsie. "I was about 6. It was winter. We didn't have a phone so a woman came running down our street saying you better get to my father's mother's house on Manchester Avenue in Keyport. So Dad said to Mom get the kids dressed and we all drove over."

"When we got there, everyone was crying. My grandmother had apparently gotten a phone call earlier. Then a car pulled up in front of her house and I will never forget my grandmother yelling 'Oh god, they're here.'' Two men in uniform walked up her front step and handed her an American flag. She collapsed and my father and one of his brothers had to hold her up and bring her back inside."

"My uncle had a very good singing voice," she recalled. "He used to sing on a little radio station that broadcast from here on the Bayshore. His mother always thought he was going to be professional singer one day."

The body of Benjamin Kelly, 22, of Keyport, NJ is buried in a U.S. military cemetery in Normandy.

Elsie said her father "changed forever that day. He wanted to help the war effort so he quit the bakery and went to work at a military plant in Edison making airplane parts."

He never returned to being the Dixie Lee deliveryman.

But before he quit, he left his beloved Keansburg customers a note: “I am bidding a temporary farewell to all whose friendship and patronage have made possible my degree of success as their Dixie Lee bakery man. Fitted by past experience of war work of an emergent nature, at this time I feel I have no alternative but to go to that work believing that our nation’s ultimate triumph is certain and that sooner than most of our people expect I may return to tell you that as your bakery man I am once more at your service. Thank you and God Bless, Edward M Kelly.”

The years passed. Elsie got married, moved away and raised several children of her own. She sometimes returned to the Dixie Lee, but she felt sad every time she went back.

But this year, Elsie heard the Dixie Lee had a new owner: Celebrity chef David Burke, who also owns Red Horse in Rumson and 7 other New Jersey restaurants. He was looking for memorabilia. She knew she had to contact him right away.

On March 31, Elsie's granddaughter (one of 10) drove her to the bakery, with two great grandchildren in tow. Elsie said she sat with Burke for hours, showing him her father's farewell letter, the menu, photos of her family in front of the bakery delivery car and finally, photos of her uncle.

"We were all crying. David was crying, I was crying, my granddaughter was crying. The children stuffed themselves with cookies," she said.

Elsie said she is nostalgic for a simpler time in America, a time when small towns were cherished and neighbors knew neighbors.

"Everyone looked out for each other. There was a lot of kindness back then," she said. "There's still kindness in the world today, but you really have to look for it."

Burke, who grew up in Hazlet, knew he was not just purchasing an 86-year-old bakery. He was purchasing a piece of history as valuable as a priceless artifact.

“We live in a time where everything changes. And this place hasn’t changed for almost 100 years," he mused. "It’s like stepping into your first house. It sparks comforting and delicious memories. I never expected this kind of loyalty, but we’ve heard many other stories like Elsie’s. It’s been a weekly routine for some people’s lives for decades."

A bakery like Dixie Lee "creates jobs, puts smiles on people’s faces and brings a sense of pride into their community. It’s an unexpected reward for me," said Burke. "There’s some exciting growth happening in Keansburg and the whole Bayshore area and I’m happy to be a part of that.”

“It makes me so happy that the bakery is still there,” said Elsie today. “I’m sure my dad is looking down saying, ‘Look at that, it’s still Dixie Lee.’”

Look for David Burke to add a retail coffee business at Dixie Lee and grab-n-go breakfast and lunch items. Another future plan is to add baking classes; you can soon have your birthday party there and include how-to-bake as a fun and educational activity.

Prior: Keansburg's Dixie Lee Bakery Taken Over By NJ Celeb Chef David Burke (May 2022)