THOMASVILLE — Did you know that no one knows the identity of Little Miss Sunbeam?

The Sunbeam brand and Little Miss Sunbeam image are owned by Quality Bakers of America (QBA), a cooperative of independent bakers around the country. Back in the early 1940s, QBA commissioned Ellen Segner, an artist based in New York City, to create a distinctive trademark.

According to QBA, Segner drew the original painting of Little Miss Sunbeam from sketches she made of a small girl playing in Washington Square Park. The identity of the girl who inspired Ms. Segner is unknown.

The Sunbeam brand and Little Miss Sunbeam made their debut in 1942. In 1944, Flowers Baking Co. became the sixth bakery in the U.S. to put Little Miss Sunbeam on its bread wrappers. Flowers still franchises the right to use the Sunbeam brand from QBA, and is today the top producer of Sunbeam bakery foods in the country.

Nature’s Own, Flowers’ top bread brand, made its debut in Jacksonville, Fla., in 1977. It was marketed as a healthier choice for consumers, at a time when most Americans were eating white bread. Nature’s Own breads contained no artificial preservatives, colors, or flavors and came in six varieties including 100% whole wheat, grainberry, and bran ‘n honey.

“Back then, Flowers saw that people were beginning to think differently about their food, and we were definitely ahead of the trend when it came to ingredients, quality, and healthy attributes,” said Keith Aldredge, Flowers’ vice president of marketing/bread. 

Now approaching 40, Nature’s Own has reached $1 billion in retail sales and is the number one bread brand in the U.S., according to IRi data. Flowers offers 37 different varieties of Nature’s Own breads, buns, sandwich rounds, bagels, English muffins, and breakfast breads.

Ever since the Flowers bakery opened in 1919, the company has produced cake items. Cakes were first sold under the Flowers brand and later, Sunbeam. Then in 1980, Flowers introduced BeeBo. (Remember BeeBo the Bear?) Blue Bird replaced BeeBo in the 1990s. Today, Flowers’ leading cake brand is Tastykake.

Flowers acquired the Tastykake brand in 2011. The brand made its debut in Philadelphia in 1914. As the story goes, the wife of one of the bakery’s founders tried one of the cakes and declared, “What a tasty cake!”

With the brand, Flowers also acquired the recipes for some unusual snack cakes, like the Krimpet, a small soft cake with a layer of frosting on top introduced in 1927. In the early days, Tasty bakers noticed the delicate cakes had a tendency to fall apart when held. Someone suggested crimping the sides of the cake, which solved the problem. 

Another Philadelphia favorite that is now available in Thomasville and other parts of the country thanks to Flowers is the Kandy Kake. Introduced in 1931 as the Tandy Take, it is a round, white cake topped with soft peanut butter and coated in chocolate.

“We say Tastykake is an ‘iconic’ brand and it really is,” said Brent Bradshaw, Flowers’ vice president of marketing/cake. “Since acquiring the brand, we’ve rolled out Tastykakes throughout our market territory to great success. People all over the country are discovering the treats that Philadelphians have been enjoying for a century.”