Debbi Fields (born September 18, 1956) is the founder and spokesperson of Mrs. Fields Bakeries. She has written several cookbooks and makes cookies. A resident of

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

for over 16 years since she remarried in 1997, she moved to Nashville in 2014. Her late husband, Michael David Rose, was the former CEO/Chairman of Holiday Corp. and Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. He died of cancer on April 2, 2017, at the age of 75. Mrs. Fields Cookies operates in over 250 locations.

Family

Debra Jane Sivyer was born in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

. Her father was a welder for the Navy and her mother was a housewife. She is the youngest of five daughters. In 1968, Oakland Athletics owner Charles O. Finley introduced " ball girls" (young girls who would sit in foul territory near the baselines to retrieve baseballs grounded foul by batters) to major league baseball. Sivyer, with the help of a sister who at the time was a secretary at the A's offices, was one of the first ones he hired. She was paid five dollars an hour and would use the money to buy ingredients for what would become her famous cookies. She instituted a "milk-and-cookies" break for the

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

s. In 1974, Sivyer graduated from

Alameda High School Alameda High School is a co-educational state high school serving grades 9–12. It is located in Alameda, California, United States, and is part of the Alameda Unified School District. History The suggestion to open a "Preparatory Department o ...

, California at the age of 17. She was also voted homecoming queen her senior year. She attended

Foothill College Foothill College is a public community college in Los Altos Hills, California. It is part of the Foothill–De Anza Community College District. It was founded on January 15, 1957, and offers 79 Associate degree programs, 1 Bachelor's degree p ...

for two years, a community college in

Los Altos Hills, California Los Altos Hills (; ''Los Altos'', Spanish for "The Heights") is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 8,489 at the 2020 census. The town is known for its affluence and expensive residential rea ...

. In 1976, at the age of 19, Sivyer married 29-year-old Stanford graduate Randall Keith Fields (MA, Political Science, 1970), founder in the early '70s of the financial and economic consulting firm Fields Investment Group, taking the name she would soon use for her business. Fields began her business in 1977 in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

, and at its height franchised 650 retail bakeries in the United States and over 80 in 11 different countries. Fields and her husband had five daughters, Jessica, Jenessa, Jennifer, Ashley, and McKenzie, but divorced in 1997. On November 29, 1997, she married Michael Rose. One of her five stepchildren from her marriage to Rose, Gabrielle Rose, swam for

Brazil at the 1996 Summer Olympics Brazil competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, United States. 225 athletes – 159 men, 66 women – competed in 18 sports. The country set a record with both 15 medals – only surpassed in 2008 – and 3 golds – surpassed in 2004 with ...

. 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. The History Channel included Mrs. Fields Cookies in their third season (S3E6) of The Food That Built America series.

References

External links

Entrepreneur's Hall of Fame: Debbi Fields

MrsFields.com

History Channel - Foods That Built America
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fields, Debbi 1956 births Living people Businesspeople from Oakland, California Writers from Oakland, California Writers from Tennessee People from Memphis, Tennessee American chief executives of food industry companies American women chief executives American cheerleaders Foothill College alumni Palo Alto, California 20th-century American women 21st-century American women