Wallace “Wally” Amos, the founder of Famous Amos cookies, has died at the age of 88. The company founder’s children Shawn and Sarah announced Tuesday that the cookie creator died at his Honolulu home on Aug. 13 due to complications with dementia, according to the New York Times .
Throughout his life, Amos had talked about how he promoted his cookie in a similar way that he’d promote artists when he was an agent at William Morris Agency, where he was the first Black talent agent in the industry, according to the History Channel . In his 2002 book, The Cookie Never Crumbles , Amos wrote that he would include a photo of the cookie and provide little plastic bags with the cookies stapled so you could “taste the cookies.” Amos even got R&B legend Marin Gaye to invest in his sweets company early on.
“Marvin Gaye had returned my call and wanted me to get back to him,” Amos wrote in the book, per LAist . “I called him from that waiting room, got him on the line, and started right in describing what it was I was up to with The Cookie and Famous Amos, and my store and all. He stopped me in mid-pitch and said, ‘Wally, Wally.
..hey, wait a minute, man.
If you’re doin’ it, that’s Ok, I’ll invest in it.'” “And just like that, he was in for the $10,000 I needed,” he added. “My shortfall set me back only a week, and thanks to Marvin, my plans were back on track.
” Born Wallace Amos Jr. in Tallahassee, Florida, on July 1, 1936, he lived his teen years in Ne.