(THECOUNT) — Oh baby! The original Gerber baby, Ann Turner Cook, is celebrating her 93rd birthday on Wednesday after a sketch of her as a baby won a 1928 contest held by the Gerber Baby Food Company.
According to Gerber, the contest aimed to find a face to represent an advertising campaign for a new line (and a new thing) called, mass-produced baby food.
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Artist Dorothy Hope Smith, who was Cook’s neighbor at the time, entered the sketch she created describing it as a “simple charcoal sketch of a tousle-haired, bright-eyed cherub of a baby with endearing pursed lips.”
Judges fell in love with Cook’s baby face in Smith’s sketch and when they chose it as the winner, they insisted it would remain a sketch. That sketch of Cook soon became the face that launched the Gerber brand and is now recognized all over the world, reports Fox32.
Cook was born on November 20, 1926. She is an American mystery novelist and retired English teacher in Tampa.
Last year, Cook met then-current Gerber spokesbaby, Lucas, who’s from Georgia. Lucas was the first Gerber spokesbaby to have Down syndrome.
Geo quick facts: Chicago, on Lake Michigan in Illinois, is among the largest cities in the U.S. Famed for its bold architecture, it has a skyline punctuated by skyscrapers such as the iconic John Hancock Center, 1,451-ft. Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) and the neo-Gothic Tribune Tower. The city is also renowned for its museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago with its noted Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works – wikipedia.