Timeline of Julia's Life
Julia Carolyn McWilliams was born in Pasadena, California on August 15, 1912. She was born into a wealthy family and was the oldest of three children. As a child she played various sports including tennis, golf and basketball. She enrolled at Smith College and graduated in 1934 with a bachelor’s degree in English. Then Julia settled as a copywriter in the advertising department in New York. Three years later, she moved back to California and became a writer. Due to how tall Julia was, she was unable to enlist in the Womens Army Corps so instead she applied to the Office of Strategic Services. She was recruited to be a typist but was soon promoted to a secret researcher. Then she worked with the Emergency Rescue Equipment Section at the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) for a year. Two years later in 1946 she was married to Paul Cushing Child. In that same year Julia and Paul moved to Washington D.C. In 1948, they moved to Paris, France because Paul was promoted to the rank of an exhibit officer with the United States Information Agency. Julia enrolled to the famous Le Cordon Bleu cooking school and studied with master chefs. Later she joined a women’s cooking club where she met Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle. The trio started working together and they researched many recipes. The trio wrote a 726 page book that was titled ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking.’ It was a bestselling book due to its illustrations and many details. Julia had her first thoughts of creating her own show in 1962. In 1971, Julia came out with her second cookbook titled, ‘The French Chef Cookbook.’ It was a written version of the recipes which were featured in her show which came out the next year in 1972. ‘The French Chef’ was the name of her show and it ran for about ten years and was one of the most widely viewed shows up to that point. In 1994, Julia’s husband passed away. She won the French Legion of Honor award in 2000. Julia moved to a retirement community in 2001 and she died at the age of 91 on August 13, 2004.