PHOENIX — She stood as a landmark in the West Valley for 15 years, before freeway construction caused her to be taken down. Now, a Valley icon is back.
Many call her the ‘Big Baby’, a 20-foot baby cutout complete with a horrified farmer and a disapproving Kathleen Duncan cutout standing near-by.
“It’s iconic, people recognize her, they remember her,” said Patty Emmert, who takes care of media relations for Duncan Family Farms. “It’s something if you were coming back into Phoenix from California, and you hit the big baby, you knew Phoenix was right there.”
Baby Jamie sat alongside Interstate 10 just beyond what is now the Loop 303 ramps. Emmert says the baby’s main purpose was for enjoyment, but her secondary purpose was to point people towards Duncan Family Farms.
When construction of Loop 303 began, Baby Jamie had to go. The land she was sitting on became a construction site. That was in 2013. Seven years later, Jamie made her quiet reappearance on Duncan Farmland at Camelback Road and the Loop 303.
“We contacted the artist, we couldn’t salvage the original baby, so we had to have him completely redo her, but it is an exact replica of the original,” Emmert explained.
While the Big Baby no longer acts as a gateway into the Valley, as it once did, the farm feels that a bit of early 2000’s nostalgia is needed this year.'
“To me, it was great timing because people are coming home for the holidays and so people were like, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s back!’” Emmert said. “So, it’s exciting to see.”