GERBER Products Company, an American supplier of baby food and baby product and a subsidiary of Nestle, has announced the death of Ann Turner Cook, the original Gerber baby, whose face can be seen on the jar for more than 90 years died at age 95 on June 3, 2022.
The company recalled that Cook became the face of Gerber after a neighbor submitted a sketch of her face to the company in 1928 in response to an open call for baby faces to represent a new advertising campaign.
“I was probably about 3 years old when mother pointed at a baby food jar and said that was my picture. I thought it was quite a lovely thing,” Cook said during her 2013 interview on CBS Sunday Morning.
Her face in the jar of the baby food was a huge hit, and became the company’s trademark since 1931 and has been used in their all packaging and advertising eversince.
“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. We extend our deepest sympathies to Ann’s family and to anyone who had the pleasure of knowing her,” Gerber Company stated in an Instagram post on Friday, June 3, 2022.
Her family said that they were by her side in Tampa, Florida during those final moments, but stressed that it’s still a difficult loss.
“She was 95, but she was a vibrant 95, very meaningful in all of our lives. And we really weren’t ready to lose her. It’s just hard to imagine the world without her, frankly,” her daughters Jan Cook and Carol Legarreta said in an interview.
Cook became a teacher and novelist in her later years.
