Allen Baird, former chairman of Mrs Baird’s Bakery, dies of COVID at 97, family says
Allen Baird, the former chairman of the 112-year-old Texas institution Mrs Baird’s Bakery that started with his grandmother in Fort Worth, died Tuesday evening after battling the coronavirus for weeks, family members told the Star-Telegram on Saturday. He was 97.
The second-oldest of five children, Allen grew up around the family bakery in the 1920s, eventually taking a job on the weekends in high school, according to his brother, Carroll Baird, 93. He enlisted in the Army as a young man at the height of World War II, Carroll said, and flew bombers as part of the Air Corps., now the Air Force. When the war ended, Allen came back to Mrs Baird’s, where he strove to not only continue his family’s legacy but to expand it across Texas.
Allen, Carroll said, loved the process, knowing the family secret to kneading the dough in just the right way before baking it at the optimal time and temperature. But as Allen moved into management positions like head of quality control, he played a larger role in shaping the future of the company, helping to oversee the development of two of its largest factories in Fort Worth and Houston in the 1980s.
He retired from the company in 1998, after serving as the president for several years and then chairman for several years. Along with his siblings and other relatives, he helped take what began with their grandmother and one wood-burning stove to a brand and a family name known across Texas.
He was diagnosed with the coronavirus about four weeks ago when after his wife, Yevette, rushed him to the emergency room with trouble breathing, Carroll said. Yevette, whom he married five years ago after the death of his first wife, Carolyn, could tell earlier this week he wasn’t going to make it. So she picked up his cell phone and put it up to his ear, so he could speak with family members one last time.
Carroll told him goodbye over the phone, knowing at the age of 93 he couldn’t take the risk of seeing him in person.
He has clung to the memory of their final face-to-face interaction, a lunch they had six weeks ago in an empty country club restaurant.
“We were laughing. We were the only ones in the dining room. ... Anybody had been there, they would’ve said, ‘Boy those are two crazy guys,’” Carroll said with a chuckle over the phone on Saturday morning. “I’m glad I got to spend that day with him.”
Allen leaves behind the wife he met on a dinner date in his early 90s as well as two sons, Michael and Lee, and a grandson, Stephen. He lost a daughter when she was months old and more recently lost another son, the father of Stephen, Carroll said.
Three of his siblings are still living, including Carroll, Betty Baird and Arthur Baird. Vernon Baird, a former president and chairman of Mrs Baird’s, died in 1992.
Allen’s surviving family members are remembering the dedicated longtime employee of the family business for his impact on the company as well as the character that made him a great leader and a friend.
His brother described him on Saturday as a good storyteller with a keen sense of humor, who could garner the attention of any crowd. Carroll’s wife, Joan Baird, called him kind, thoughtful and “the life of the party.”
“He was the brother that I never had,” the 88-year-old said. “And I loved him dearly.”
Born in 1922, Allen grew up in a family that was already becoming an “American history story,” Carroll said. Their grandmother, Ninnie Baird, started the company in 1908 amid her diabetic husband’s rapidly declining health, leaving him unable to work. A skilled baker, she was able to sell her breads and sweets to make ends meet, with the help of her eight children and one horse for deliveries.
By the time Allen was a child, Mrs Baird’s had already grown into one of the largest baking operations in Texas. The grandchildren were always around the bakery from a young age always doing something, Carroll said.
Allen went to New Mexico Military Institute after high school and joined the Army, becoming a second lieutenant in the horse cavalry. After he went through training in Fort Riley, Kansas, and then El Paso, he decided he wanted to be in an airplane instead of a tank, so he put in for a transfer to the Air Corps. In the fall of 1945, Carroll said, he was ordered to pick up a bomber and head to the Pacific theater of battle.
“The day before that, Japan surrendered, and his orders got canceled and he didn’t have to go,” Carroll said.
When Allen returned to work at the family business, he knew, like anyone else in their family, he had to give 110%, Carroll said — and that’s what he did. He first moved to Abilene to become manager of a plant, beginning years of him building operations across Texas, before settling down in his hometown, Fort Worth.
His biggest expertise, Carroll said, was in the baking itself, knowing better than anyone what was the best, most up-to-date equipment and the best processes. He grew into an expert on baking.
Perhaps one of his greatest strengths, however, was in the relationships he fostered.
“Everybody that knew him, loved him,” Carroll said.
This story was originally published November 15, 2020 at 11:32 AM.
CORRECTION: This story has been edited to correct the type of military planes that Allen Baird flew.
