The original Gerber baby, Ann Turner Cook celebrated her birthday on Nov. 20, 2019. Though she soon grew out of those adorably round, chubby cheeks into womanhood, eventually to a fine age of 93, so too has that first portrait endured as the face of Gerber for just as long; Cook’s cute likeness has adorned Gerber’s product packaging since 1928.
Back in those days, Gerber Products Co. held a contest to find a face to market their baby food products. Cook’s neighbor, artist Dorothy Hope Smith, entered her charcoal sketch of Cook as a baby, and the judges fell in love; they picked Smith’s depiction of baby Cook as the winner of the contest.
