Inventor of the famous Amos cookies dies at the age of 88

HONOLULU – Wallace “Wally” Amos, the founder of the cookie empire that bore his name and made it famous and who later championed children's literacy, has died. He was 88.

Amos founded the famous cookie empire Famous Amos and eventually lost ownership of the company – as well as the rights to use the catchy Amos name. In his later years, he became the owner of a cookie shop called Chip & Cookie in Hawaii, where he moved in 1977.

He died Tuesday at his home in Honolulu, with his wife Carol at his side, his children said. He died from complications of dementia, they said.

“With his Panama hat, his kazoo and his boundless optimism, Famous Amos was a great American success story and a source of black pride,” said a statement from his children Sarah, Michael, Gregory and Shawn Amos.

He was married six times to five women, said his son Shawn, explaining that he and Carol separated, got back together and then remarried.

His children said their father “inspired a generation of entrepreneurs when he opened the world's first cookie shop on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles in 1975.”

He was stationed in Hawaii with the Air Force and Famous Amos later enabled him to make the place his home.

Although Wally Amos was a great promoter, he struggled as a businessman and eventually lost control of the company. He left because he didn't want to just be its figurehead, Sarah Amos said.

The subsequent loss of the company and the right to use his name was a deeply painful and personal matter for Shawn Amos. “For the rest of his life and his subsequent professional activities, I tried to get him to reclaim that place,” he said.

Wally Amos also co-founded Uncle Wally's Muffin Co., whose products are available in stores nationwide. But Amos said fame never really meant much to him.

“Being famous is highly overrated anyway,” Amos told the Associated Press in 2007.

His muffin company, based in Shirley, NY, was originally founded as Uncle Noname Cookie Co. in 1992, a few years after Amos lost Famous Amos, which still frequently uses his name on its products.

However, Uncle Noname failed due to debts and problems with its contract manufacturers.

The company filed for bankruptcy in 1996, gave up cookie production and focused on muffin production, at the suggestion of Amos' business partner Lou Avignone.

At his now-closed Hawaii Cookie Shop, he sold bite-sized cookies similar to those he first sold at the Famous Amos Hollywood store.

Amos was also involved in promoting reading. For example, his store had a reading room with dozens of donated books, and Amos usually spent Saturdays sitting in a rocking chair, wearing a watermelon hat, reading to children.

The former high school dropout wrote eight books, served as a spokesperson for the Literacy Volunteers of America organization for 24 years, and gave motivational speeches to companies, universities, and other groups.

Amos has received numerous awards for his volunteer work, including the Literacy Award from President George HW Bush in 1991.

In one of his books, Man With No Name: Turn Lemons Into Lemonade, Amos explained how he lost Famous Amos before it was sold to a Taiwanese company for $63 million in 1991. Despite good sales, the company was losing money in 1985, so Amos brought in outside investors.

“The new owners kept ripping up more and more of my share until I suddenly found that I had lost all of my shares in the company I had founded,” Amos wrote. It wasn't long before the company changed hands four times.

Sarah Amos said he didn't bake for about two years after splitting up with Famous Amos. After rediscovering his love of baking, he founded Hawaiian company Chip & Cookie in 1991.

Amos was born in Tallahassee, Florida, and moved to New York City at age 12 because of his parents' divorce. He lived with an aunt, Della Bryant, who taught him how to bake chocolate chip cookies.

He later dropped out of high school to join the Air Force before working as a postal clerk at the William Morris Agency. There he became a talent agent, working with The Supremes, Simon & Garfunkel and Marvin Gaye before borrowing $25,000 to start his cookie business.

He was the first black agent in the business, Shawn Amos said.