Ann Turner Cook, the Face of Gerber Baby Food Products, Dies at 95

The long anonymity of the Gerber infant also ensured that there was at minimum one pretender to the throne. In the 1940s, 1 spouse and children sued the organization, professing that its child was the infant on the label. Testifying in court docket, Ms. Smith disclosed her model’s identification, and the go well with was decided in Gerber’s favor.

Ms. Cook, who experienced been conscious of her position considering the fact that early childhood, stored her very own counsel. Right after going with her relatives to Orlando, Fla., in the late 1930s, she attained a bachelor’s diploma in English from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, adopted by a master’s in the field from the University of South Florida. She taught junior superior and large faculty English, getting the division chairwoman of Hillsborough Substantial University in Tampa, Fla.

As a youthful instructor, Ms. Cook, fearful of the beautiful manufacturer of disdain at which adolescents excel, selected never to disclose her childish id. Only in the late 1970s, with Gerber’s commemoration of the drawing’s 50th anniversary, did she publicly reveal herself as its subject matter. Her learners, she later on explained, were intrigued.

Ms. Cook’s spouse, James Cook dinner, a criminologist who was a significant with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Workplace in Tampa, died in 2004. Her survivors involve 3 daughters, Jan Cook, Carol Legarreta and Kathy Cook a son, Clifford 8 grandchildren and 9 fantastic-grandchildren.

Immediately after retiring from training, Ms. Cook wrote a series of self-released criminal offense novels. She grew amiably reconciled to existence as the Gerber child, granting interviews and appearing on the television quiz demonstrate “To Notify the Real truth.”

Bogart was a smaller lingering irritant, but he could be borne.

Ms. Cook’s lengthy-back likeness continues to be a cultural touchstone to this working day. In latest yrs, Gerber, now a subsidiary of Nestlé, has held an annual babies’ photo contest, awarding a grand prize of $25,000 and applying the winner in its marketing.

As soon as she identified herself as the Gerber toddler — and as the mom of 4 to boot — Ms. Cook remaining herself open to a concern that she had to reply cagily. She gave just these kinds of an solution when The World and Mail, the Canadian newspaper, set the dilemma to her in a 1987 job interview:

Did she feed her possess little ones Gerber toddler foods?

There was a slight pause.

“Not exclusively,” Ms. Cook replied.