Debbi Fields (; 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.

Early life

Debra Jane Sivyer was born in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

. Her father worked as a welder for the Navy, while her mother was a housewife. She is the youngest of five daughters. In the 1970s, the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (frequently referred to as the Oakland A's) were an American Major League Baseball (MLB) team based in Oakland, California from 1968 to 2024. The Athletics were a member club of the American League (AL) American League We ...

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. She was paid five dollars an hour and would use the money to buy ingredients for what would become her famous cookies. Additionally, 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 , , and , : (as evidenced in cricke ...

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 ...

, California at the age of 17. Additionally, 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 84 Associate degree programs, 2 Bachelor's degree p ...

, a community college located 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 ...

, for two years.

Career

Fields began her business in 1977 in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

, 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 Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

for over 16 years since she remarried in 1997, she moved to Nashville in 2014.

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. Fields and Randall had five daughters named Jessica, Jenessa, Jennifer, Ashley, and McKenzie. They divorced in 1997. On November 29, 1997, she married Michael Rose, the former CEO/Chairman of Holiday Corp. and Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. One of her five stepchildren from their marriage, 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 ...

. He died of cancer on April 2, 2017, at the age of 75.

In media

"Cookie Fortunes", the sixth episode of the third season of

The History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the General Entertainment Content division of The Wa ...

series ''

The Food That Built America ''The Food That Built America'' is an American nonfiction docudrama series for the History Channel, that premiered on August 11, 2019. Each episode outlines the development of a popular type of food or restaurant in the United States, typically ...

'' depicts the founding of Mrs. Fields Cookies. In the episode, Fields is played by Rebecca Golberg

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 Memphis, Tennessee Businesspeople 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 writers 21st-century American women writers Alameda High School alumni