Wally Amos, creator of Famous Amos cookies, dies at 88

Aug. 14 (UPI) -- Wally Amos, the man in the straw hat who created and grew the Famous Amos cookie brand into a baked goods empire, has died at the age of 88.

Amos died Tuesday at his home in Honolulu due to complications of dementia, his children Shawn and Sarah Amos told The New York Times . Amos is also survived by his children, Gregory and Michael, and his wife of 45 years, Christine Harris Amos.

Wallace Amos was born in Tallahassee in 1936 and grew up with his aunt in New York City's Harlem. He served in the Air Force between 1954 and 1957 after dropping out of high school .

Amos, who completed his G.E.D., worked his way up from the mailroom at William Morris Agency in Los Angeles, where he became the industry's first black talent agent . He went on to become the head of the agency's rock 'n' roll department and signed Simon and Garfunkel.

Amos often baked his Aunt Della's chocolate chip cookie recipe as "a hobby to relieve stress" while working at William Morris, according to his son Shawn who wrote Cookies & Milk .

"I'd go to meetings with a record company or movie people and bring along some cookies, and pretty soon everybody was asking for them," Amos told The New York Times in 1975, after launching his first Famous Amos store in Los Angeles with help from celebrity investors Marvin Gaye and Helen Reddy who donated $25,000.

The Famous Amos Cookie Company sold $300,000 of the home-made and preservative-free product, packaged with the image of Wally Amos in a Panama hat and embroidered cotton shirt, in its first year and was making $12 million seven years later. Packaged Famous Amos cookies could be found in grocery stores and Famous Amos cookie stores across the country.

Wally Amos appeared on the cover of Time magazine and made guest appearances on TV sitcoms, including The Jeffersons , Taxi and The Office , before encountering financial troubles. In 1988, he sold the company, which has changed hands multiple times and is now owned by the Ferrero Group.

In 1992, Amos launched Wally Amos Presents hazelnut cookies and was sued for trademark infringement for using his own name and image.

"I was stupid, plain and simple. I sold the company and didn't realize I had sold my future along with it," Amos said.

"I'd lost the company really because I didn't use to listen to people a lot because I was Famous Amos," he told The New York Times in 1999.

"The first couple of years after I left Famous Amos, I didn't even make cookies anymore, and I used to always make cookies at home. I didn't even want to talk about chocolate chip cookies, really," Amos added. "I shaved my beard and stopped wearing hats."

While Amos lost the rights to use his name and image, he later sold baked goods under other names, including Uncle Noname, Uncle Wally's Muffin Co., and the Cookie Kahuna, which eventually failed.

Amos opened Uncle Wally's Muffin Co. in Hawaii and in 2017, launched a GoFundMe to say he was struggling to pay for food and rent.

A year later, Amos paid homage to the aunt who got him started with Aunt Della's Cookies in Columbia, S.C.

"This is my last company. I can tell you that for sure," Amos told Charlotte magazine in 2018. "Put that on my tombstone: 'He died starting one last cookie company.'"

During his life, Amos wrote a number of books about his experiences, including Man With No Name and The Famous Amos Story: The Face That Launched 1,000 Chips. He also served as a national spokesman for Literacy Volunteers of America.