Mary Kay Ash (May 12, 1918 – November 22, 2001) was an American businesswoman and
founder of Mary Kay CoMary Kay Ash, born Mary Kathlyn Wagner in Hot
Wells, Harris County, Texas, was the daughter of Edward Alexander and Lula
Vember Hastings Wagner. Her mother was trained as a nurse and later became a
manager of a restaurant in Houston.[2] Ash attended Dow Elementary School and
Reagan High School in Houston, and graduated in 1934.
Ash married Ben Rogers at age 17. They
had two children, Ben Jr. and Richard Rogers. While her husband served in World
War II, she sold books door-to-door. After her husband's return in 1945, they
divorced. Ash later had her only daughter, Marylin Reed. Ash went to work for
Stanley Home Products. Frustrated when passed over for a promotion in favor of
a man that she had trained, Ash retired in 1963 and intended to write a book to
assist women in business. The book turned into a business plan for her ideal
company, and in the summer of 1963, Mary Kay Ash and her new husband, Mel Ash,
planned to start Mary Kay Cosmetics. However, one month before Mary Kay and Mel
Ash started Beauty by Mary Kay, as the company was then called, Mel died of a
heart attack. One month after Mel's death on September 13, 1963 when she was 45
years old with a $5,000 investment from her oldest son, Ben Rogers, Jr. and
with her young son, Richard Rogers taking her late husband's place, Ash started
Mary Kay Cosmetics. The company started its original storefront operation in
Dallas.
Ash was widely respected. She considered
the Golden Rule the founding principle of Mary Kay Cosmetics and the company's
marketing plan was designed to allow women to advance by helping others to
succeed. She advocated "praising people to success" and her slogan
"God first, family second, career third" expressed her insistence
that the women in her company keep their lives in good balance. Mary Kay Ash
died in Dallas, Texas November 22, 2001.smetics,
Inc.
Both during her life and posthumously, Ash received
numerous honors from business groups, including the Horatio Alger Award. Ash
was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1996. A
long-time fundraiser for charities, she founded the Mary Kay Ash Charitable
Foundation to raise money to combat domestic violence and cancers affecting
women. Ash served as Mary Kay Cosmetics' chairman until 1987, when she was
named Chairman Emeritus. Fortune magazine recognized Mary Kay Inc. with
inclusion in "The 100 best companies to work for in America." The
company was also named one of the best 10 companies for women to work. Her most
recent acknowledgements were the "Equal Justice Award" from Legal
Services of North Texas in 2001, and "Most Outstanding Woman in Business
in the 20th Century" from Lifetime Television in 1999. Mary Kay Ash
authored 4 books, all of which became best-sellers. Her autobiography, Mary
Kay, has sold more than a million copies and appears in several languages. Mary
Kay Ash's second book "Miracles Happen" and Mary Kay Ash's third
book, You Can Have It All, was launched in August 1995 and achieved
"best-seller" status within days of its introduction.
Mary Kay also authored a book called "Mary Kay on
People Management", 1984 and the publisher Nightingale Conant produced an
audio program authored by Mary Kay with the same title as the book.
Her death was on November
22, 2001. Mary Kay Ash is interred in the Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery in Dallas, Texas.
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