Little Debbie needs no introductions! Our all-time favorite sweet snacks brands have been our favorite with all its dessert snacks from the Swiss Rolls to the Oatmeal Creme Pies. The food brand under the McKee is one of the major players in the snack food industry in America with its 75 varieties of cookies and cakes available all over the US and other parts of the world.

The McKee family is ranked 163 with a $1.5 billion net worth in 2015, in the list of America’s richest families in Forbes. So let’s dig for more information about our years-old, all-time favorite snack brand and also check out the wiki facts of Little Debbie.

Little Debbie Wiki Facts: Is Little Debbie Still Alive?

Little Debbie is one of the snack foods brands under the McKee Foods Corporation, which was created in 1960 and headquartered in Collegedale, Tennessee in the United State. The brand completed its 60th anniversary in 2020 and running its 62 years in the present.

The brand logo is illustrated as the smiling little girl with a straw hat which is considered one of the remarkable logos that still is running perfectly well to this day. But do you know, that our favorite brand logo is an actual girl and is the granddaughter, Debra McKee Fowler of the McKee founder O.D. McKee and Ruth McKee?

She is now the Executive Vice President and one of the Directors of the parent corporation McKee. The brand alone produces 75 varieties of cookies and cakes and it’s available in all the states of America along with Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and a few cities in China since 2017.

Now many asked the question, is Little Debbie still alive? And if it is no more under McKee, then who owns Little Debbie?

The answer is yes, Little Debbie is still running in the snack foods business and its journey from 1960, is still as impactful as it was when first introduced. And about the actual Debbie as we have mentioned above now she is the Executive Vice President of the brand along with her three other siblings.

In case you have the doubt that the brand is no more under McKee, then you are wrong, it’s still under the ownership of McKee Foods and still is running by the McKee family known as the third generation of the McKee.

Mckee History: O.D. McKee, Ruth McKee, and Little Debbie

The history of the brand Little Debbie went back to the 1920s during the great depression time between 1929 to 1939 when the American economy dropped at an unbelievable rate and half of the Americans were unemployed. A similar thing was going on with the McKee family during this time. That is the period when Oather McKee or O.D. Mckee first start by selling five-cent cake in 1928 and taking care of his family.

The main start of their family business took place in 1934 when O.D. McKee and his wife Ruth McKee bought the small Jack’s cookie company and started with a small scale selling cakes and cookies in Chattanooga, Tennessee. They then worked together to make it into a big name in the state.

The couple with O.D. McKee being the risk-taker and his broad future visions along with Ruth McKee with her cautious and sound judgments together make the McKee Foods Corporation, that today shine at the top.

In the 1950s they purchased the King’s Bakery and named it McKee Baking Company which was later renamed McKee Foods Corporation in 1991. After this, the company moved the business to Collegedale in Tennessee with the rise of production demands which later became the headquarters for the corporation.

The Birth of Little Debbie Snacks Foods

Now in 1960, the most famous of the McKee Foods Corporation brands, Little Debbie snacks was born.  We can never forget the popular logo of the brand pictured a cute smiling little girl with a straw hat and underneath it short curly auburn hair with sparkling blue eyes.

The logo was designed by Pearl Mann and gained so much attention since its launch and it’s still a well-recognized logo of all time. But have you ever come across the question that if the logo is related to a real person or who is Little Debbie? Then let’s look into the answer and learn more about the brand.

Our all favorite Little Debbie cakes and cookies brand logo is another thing we love apart from its variety of tasty dessert snacks, and guess what, the logo is an illustration of a real person. The founder of the McKee Foods Corporation and the brand Little Debbie, O.D. McKee and Ruth McKee chose their four years old granddaughter Debra McKee Fowler as the face and representative symbol for their new brand.

Another interesting thing about it is, that the real Debbie and her parents were unaware of the logo and were surprised and in awe to see the logo in the product packages. Since then the logo started appearing in various snacks products packages and became the sole representative of the dessert brand.

Little Debbie Snacks and Products

The logo gets the full-color versions on its product packages in 1962 and in the same year, it also introduced its famous Swiss Cake Rolls or Swiss Rolls. When O.D. McKee toured Europe then he came across the popular dessert Roulade which then inspired him to add a new version of it to his brand as Swiss Rolls.

Along the way of its journey, the brand keeps introducing many new and delicious treats to its customers like we have the Strawberry Shortcake Rolls that came into the market in 1966. Another of its forever favorite snack is the Fudge Brownies sprinkled with walnuts which were introduced in 1969 as a family pack. Other of its best classic brownies are Christmas Tree Brownies and Cosmic Brownies that we hope will never disappear.

And we can’t go without mentioning the Crunch Cookies called Star Crunch introduced in 1970 which still have a favorite spot in everyone’s hearts.

Apart from these all-time favorite classic snacks, it has many other of its well-liked products like Zebra Cakes, Roasted Fudge Cake, Devil Cremes, Nutty Buddy, Chocolate Chip, and Oatmeal Creme Pies. The brand alone produces 75 varieties of cakes and cookies and with more of its new discoveries and new product introductions, it will bring us more new products for more treats.

Is Anything New from Little Debbie?

We all have got our own favorite cookies and cakes from Little Debbie, don’t we? So what if we say that it has now introduced the new Ice Cream flavor of its all-time favorite snack cakes in collaboration with Hudsonville Ice Cream?

The Ice Cream hit the markets on the 1st of February of 2022 at Walmart and everyone is excited and super ready to get a taste of the new cake-flavored Ice Cream.

Now, what are the different flavored Ice creams the brand introduced to us? It has a total of seven flavors namely Oatmeal Creme Pies, Cosmic Brownies, Zebra Cakes, Nutty Bars, Swiss Rolls, Honey Buns, and Strawberry Shortcake Rolls. Each pint cost $2.50 at Walmart and will be available in the markets from now on so if you haven’t tried it go ahead and get yours.