Mrs. Ninnie L. Baird is the founder of Mrs. Baird’s Bakeries, Inc. Ninnie’s story is of a woman who learned early that you have to put into her bread something besides the common ingredients. You also need intangibles as honesty, hope, ambition and a perseverance that can’t be altered by heartache.
Ninnie was born in 1869 in Trenton, Tennessee. At the age of 14, as an orphan, she went to live with an aunt who taught her about baking bread. The first lesson began: “Baking must always be clean”. At 17 she married William Baird. In 1901, William brought the family to Fort Worth. His first business, a steam popcorn machine - a “first” in the city, was set up at 7th and Main. William then turned to the restaurant business, opening his first on Exchange Avenue.
The family later moved to 512 Hemphill, the birthplace of “Mrs Baird’s Bread,”where her wood-fired oven baked four loaves at a time. In those days people would hand things across the fence to share with their neighbors.
In 1908 William’s health declined. Mrs. Baird took the neighbors’ suggestion and started baking bread to sell to support the family of eight children. Her sons delivered bread on foot and then bicycle. As the business grew, they remodeled a small house at the back. She bought a commercial oven that baked 40 loaves at a time from the Metropolitan Hotel for $75 -- $25 in cash and the rest to be paid out in bread. The family buggy was converted into a delivery wagon.
Baking was the support for the family after William died in 1911. The business grew and in 1919 the family opened the first bakery at Terrell and 6th. The bakery on Summit Avenue opened in 1938. Other bakeries would be built across the state of Texas as the business grew.
When news of Ninnie’s death in June 1961 reached the front pages of Texas newspapers, the Texas State Senate passed a resolution declaring Mrs. Ninnie Baird “a living example for mothers, wives, business executives, Christians and good people all around the world.”