Debbi Fields
{{Short description|American entrepreneur and author; founder of Mrs. Fields}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Debbi Fields
| image =
| caption =
| birth_name = Debra Jane Sivyer
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1956|9|18}}
| birth_place = Oakland, California, U.S.
| occupation = Businesswoman, author
| known_for = Founder of Mrs. Fields
}}
Debbi Fields ({{nee|Debra Jane Sivyer}}; born September 18, 1956) is the founder and spokesperson of Mrs. Fields Bakeries. Initially one of the original ball girls in major league baseball, she used her pay to refine her cookie recipes. She has written several cookbooks. Mrs. Fields Cookies currently operates in over 250 locations.{{cite web |url=http://www.mrsfields.com/about/ |title=About Us |website=Mrs Fields}}
Early life
Debra Jane Sivyer was born in Oakland, California. Her father worked as a welder for the Navy, while her mother was a housewife. She is the youngest of five daughters.{{cite web | url=http://www.evancarmichael.com/library/debbi-fields/The-Cookie-Connoisseur-The-Early-Years-of-Debbi-Fields.html | website=EvanCarmichael.com | year=2016 | title= The Cookie Connoisseur: The Early Years of Debbi Fields |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161016224159/http://www.evancarmichael.com/library/debbi-fields/The-Cookie-Connoisseur-The-Early-Years-of-Debbi-Fields.html |archive-date=October 16, 2016| df=mdy-all}}
In the 1970s, the Oakland Athletics introduced "ball girls" (young girls who would sit in foul territory near the baselines to retrieve baseballs grounded foul by batters) to the team. Sivyer, with the help of a sister who was then a secretary at the A's offices, was one of the first ones hired.{{cite web |url=https://www.thepostgame.com/blog/throwback/201506/oakland-susan-slusser-fans-book-hammer-mrs-fields-cookies-finley |title=How Oakland A's Helped Launch 'Hammer Time' And Mrs. Fields Cookies Empire | website=The Post Game |author1= Slusser, Susan | date=June 22, 2015 | df=mdy-all}} She was paid five dollars an hour and would use the money to buy ingredients for what would become her famous cookies.{{Cite web |title=Debbi Fields - Entrepreneur's Hall of Fame |url=https://www.ltbn.com/hall_of_fame/Fields.html |access-date=2024-01-02 |website=www.ltbn.com}} Additionally, she instituted a "milk-and-cookies" break for the umpires.
In 1974, Sivyer graduated from Alameda High School, California at the age of 17.{{Cite web |date=2021-05-26 |title=Debbi Fields |url=https://paulcollege.unh.edu/rosenberg/franchise-pioneers-world/debbi-fields |access-date=2023-12-25 |website=Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics |language=en}} Additionally, she was also voted homecoming queen her senior year.{{cite web |url=https://localwiki.org/alameda/Debbi_Fields |title=Debbi Fields | website=Localwiki: Alameda | date=May 20, 1998 | df=mdy-all}} She attended Foothill College, a community college located in Los Altos Hills, California, for two years.{{cite web |url=http://www.financial-inspiration.com/Debbi-Fields-biography.html |title=Debbie Field's biography – One Smart Cookie |website=Financial Inspiration Cafe |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007150044/http://www.financial-inspiration.com/Debbi-Fields-biography.html |archive-date=October 7, 2011 }}
Career
Fields began her business in 1977 in Palo Alto, California, and at its height franchised 650 retail bakeries in the United States and over 80 in 11 different countries.
Fields began franchising in 1990, and, though she sold the business to an investment group in the early 1990s, she remains the company's spokesperson.
A resident of Memphis, Tennessee for over 16 years since she remarried in 1997, she moved to Nashville in 2014.{{cite web |url=https://styleblueprint.com/everyday/debbi-fields-faces/|title= Debbi Fields: FACES of the South | website=StyleBlueprint |author1= Michalak, Katherine | year=2015| df=mdy-all}}
Personal life
In 1976, at the age of 19, Sivyer married Randall Keith Fields, a 29-year-old Stanford graduate who founded the financial and economic consulting firm Fields Investment Group in the early 1970s. Subsequently, she adopted the name she would soon use for her business.{{cite web |url=https://www.topbusinessentrepreneurs.com/debbi-fields.html|website=Famous Entrepreneurs| title=Debbi Fields| date=2009-11-18 }} Fields and Randall had five daughters named Jessica, Jenessa, Jennifer, Ashley, and McKenzie. They divorced in 1997.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}
On November 29, 1997, she married Michael Rose, the former CEO/Chairman of Holiday Corp. and Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.{{cite news |url=https://www.deseret.com/1998/5/20/19381053/fields-cookie-without-the-mrs-or-mr |title=Fields cookie without the Mrs. or Mr.?| work=Deseret News | date=May 20, 1998 | df=mdy-all}} One of her five stepchildren from their marriage, Gabrielle Rose, swam for Brazil at the 1996 Summer Olympics. He died of cancer on April 2, 2017, at the age of 75.{{cite news |url=https://www.aspentimes.com/obituaries/michael-david-rose/ |title=Michael David Rose | work=The Aspen Times | date=May 5, 2017 |format=Obituaries | df=mdy-all}}
In media
"Cookie Fortunes", the sixth episode of the third season of The History Channel series The Food That Built America depicts the founding of Mrs. Fields Cookies. In the episode, Fields is played by Rebecca Gomberg.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.ltbn.com/hall_of_fame/Fields.html Entrepreneur's Hall of Fame: Debbi Fields]
- [http://www.mrsfields.com/ MrsFields.com]
- [https://play.history.com/shows/the-food-that-built-america#episodes History Channel - Foods That Built America]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fields, Debbi}}
Category:Businesspeople from Oakland, California
Category:Writers from Oakland, California
Category:Writers from Memphis, Tennessee
Category:Businesspeople from Memphis, Tennessee
Category:American chief executives of food industry companies
Category:American women chief executives
Category:American cheerleaders
Category:Foothill College alumni
Category:Palo Alto, California
Category:20th-century American women writers