Marilyn Hagerty, a North Dakota newspaper columnist whose earnest review of her local Olive Garden restaurant became a social media sensation, died Tuesday.
Hagerty died at a hospital in Grand Forks from complications related to a stroke, according to her daughter Gail Hagerty. She remembered her mother as a journalist at heart who was more interested in giving readers an honest assessment of what to expect from a restaurant than in being critical.
Her 2012 Olive Garden piece was “unique and authentic, coming from a grandmother in North Dakota,” Gail Hagerty said.
In the review, she famously wrote in praise of the chain’s chicken Alfredo as “warm and comforting on a cold day.”
“As I ate, I noticed the vases and planters with permanent flower displays on the ledges,” she wrote. “There are several dining areas with arched doorways. And there is a fireplace that adds warmth to the decor.”
It spread on social media and drew national media attention to Hagerty.
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