By James R. Hagerty 

As Brenda Barnes often noted with a wry smile, quitting a job made her famous. It also turned out to be a brilliant career move.

After 22 years of working for PepsiCo Inc., Ms. Barnes headed the company's vast North American beverage operations. She seemed destined for a CEO job. Then, in late 1997, she resigned, saying she wanted more time with her children, who were aged 7, 8 and 10. It wasn't a euphemism; PepsiCo had tried to keep her.

Suddenly, she was besieged with interview requests from reporters all over the world -- including Katie Couric of the "Today" television show -- wanting to know if her decision proved women couldn't have it all. She replied that her personal decision wasn't a template for other women. Later, she added that, no, women couldn't have it all. They had to pick and choose.

Her choice was to devote more time to parenting but stay plugged into the corporate world. By serving on half a dozen corporate boards -- including those of Avon Products Inc., New York Times Co. and George Lucas's film company -- she broadened her skills. "It was like going to graduate school," she told students at Augustana College three years ago.

That experience prepared for her return to the spotlight as president of Sara Lee Corp. in mid-2004 and promotion to CEO of that conglomerate in February 2005.

Her 6 1/2 -year sabbatical sent a powerful message to her family. When Ms. Barnes suffered a career-ending stroke in 2010, her daughter, Erin, gave up a sales job at Campbell Soup Co. to spend a year helping her mom.

After another stroke, Ms. Barnes died Tuesday. She was 63.

Through rehabilitation, she had regained much of her mobility. During a panel discussion sponsored by Fortune magazine, she remembered a therapist asking her to move rubber balls from one basket to another. Ms. Barnes began grabbing three or four balls at a time. The therapist instructed her to move them one by one. Ms. Barnes protested: "Well, I'm into efficiency." The therapist replied: "No, we're into repetition."

Friends said Ms. Barnes remained upbeat and eager to mentor young people in her final years.

Her upbringing, she said, gave her humility, an ability to connect with people at all levels and faith that hard work would pay off, eventually. She was born Brenda Jo Czajka (pronounced CHAI-ka) on Nov. 11, 1953, and grew up in the blue-collar Chicago suburb of River Grove. She, her six sisters and her parents somehow squeezed into a two-bedroom, one-bath bungalow, after her father, a factory worker, added four beds in the attic.

As a teenager, she worked in a flower shop, where she peppered the owner with suggestions. She studied economics and business at Augustana. "I had no clue what I was going to do with my life," she said later, and liberal arts proved the perfect choice for her.

When she graduated in 1975, jobs were scarce. She worked as a waitress and an overnight mail sorter at the U.S. Postal Service. "I learned every ZIP Code in Illinois," she said. The experience motivated her to complete a master's of business administration at Loyola University.

Wilson Sporting Goods, then owned by PepsiCo, gave her a job in logistics and distribution. She moved into marketing and impressed her bosses with the successful launch of Wilson sport bags. She went on to greater responsibilities at PepsiCo's snack-foods and beverage units. As her income rose, she paid off her parents' mortgage.

At Sara Lee, she spun off the Hanes underwear business and sold other units to focus on food, including such brands as Jimmy Dean sausages and Ball Park hot dogs. She admitted to making a "stupid" error by promising Wall Street that Sara Lee would produce 12% profit margins. "It was too precise," she said in a 2009 talk to business students at Stanford University. "There was too much distance to travel.... We finally said forget the 12%, we're just going to make progress."

Ms. Barnes is survived by five sisters and her three children. Her marriage to their father, Randall Barnes, ended in divorce.

She was proud of a Sara Lee program she called "returnships," temporary jobs for people who had been out of the workforce for years, leaving a gap in their résumés. "They didn't lose their brains," she said, but most companies wouldn't touch them.

She didn't regret the 6 1/2 -year gap in her own résumé. "I would do it a million times over," she said.

Write to James R. Hagerty at bob.hagerty@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 20, 2017 05:44 ET (10:44 GMT)

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