Ann Turner Cook, who was known as the Gerber Baby and was immortalized in charcoal, died at the age of 95.
On Friday, June 4, the baby brand confirmed Cook’s death on Instagram.
Here’s what the company said:
“Gerber is deeply saddened by the passing of Ann Turner Cook, the original Gerber baby, whose face was sketched to become the iconic Gerber logo more than 90 years ago. We extend our deepest sympathies to Ann’s family and to anyone who had the pleasure of knowing her.”
More than 90 years ago, Cook’s face was sketched to create the renowned Gerber logo.
According to the corporate website, Cook was just four months old when the family’s neighbor, Dorothy Hope Smith, made a sketch of the cherubic baby in charcoal and submitted it to Gerber’s advertising campaign contest in 1928.
The judges were completely smitten with the simple sketch of the expressive tyke, despite the fact that more elaborate images were submitted. Cook’s radiant face, first shown in Good Housekeeping in 1928, became the official trademark of Gerber Baby food by 1931. For decades, the image appeared on a variety of Gerber products, including baby food, drink, and formula.
“Many years before becoming an extraordinary mother, teacher, and writer, her smile and expressive curiosity captured hearts everywhere and will continue to live on as a symbol for all babies,” the company said.
Cook was revealed to be the iconic Gerber baby in the late 1970s after Gerber maintained the identity of its Gerber baby a mystery for 40 years.
Cook was a Tampa English teacher who rose through the ranks to become the department chairwoman at Hillsborough High School. She graduated from Southern Methodist University with a bachelor’s degree and went on to the University of South Florida for her master’s degree. She went on to write other mystery novels after she retired. Three daughters, a son, eight grandsons, and nine great-grandchildren survive Cook. James Cook, her criminologist spouse, died in 2004.
Cook told CBS Sunday Morning in 2013 that her children loved seeing their mother’s iconic face on the packaging.
She said, “My own children would go through a grocery store, and they would point to the Gerber baby food and say, ‘That’s my mother’s picture,’ to whoever was walking by.”
Cook also went on to say that was proud.
“That’s my immortality,
“I’ve become a symbol for babies, which couldn’t be anything nicer than that.”
Sources: Breitbart, CBSnews, Wsls
