While you might not know her by name, Ann Turner Cook may be one of the most recognizable children of all time.
Turner, now 87, was just a four months old in 1928 when a sketch of her was selected in a contest to represent Gerber baby food.
For nearly 50 years, Cook's identity as the Gerber baby was kept top secret because the baby food company wanted everyone to be able to identify with the baby as their child.
"The Gerber company had not wanted publicity, because if the baby was identified as a girl, the little boys would feel like they didn't have representation," Cook explained to Oprah: Where Are They Now?.
Despite her fame, Cook said it never really went to her head.
"Most of that time I didn't give much thought to it!" she said. "All the years when I went to college and so forth, I didn't tell people that I was the model for the Gerber baby. That would seem a little self-promoting."
Cook did admit that the financial compensation helped her and her husband during the early years of their marriage.
"The first time that I was compensated was at a time that my husband… had just come back from overseas — he was in the Navy during World War II — and we had absolutely no money at that time," Cook said.
"They paid me enough that we could buy our first car, and we made a down payment on a very modest little house. So, they gave me a start in our married life."
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