Cosmetics magnate and social activist Mary Kay Ash died at her Dallas home on Thursday, aged 83.
“The world has lost one of its greatest champions of women and one of the most loving and inspirational business leaders,” said her son, Richard Rogers, a co-founder of his mother’s Mary Kay Inc as well its CEO.
Mary Kay founded her eponymous cosmetics firm in the early Sixties and at the time employed just 11 people. Today more than 850,000 people in 37 countries toil for the firm whose wholesale revenue topped $1.3 billion last year. Quite an accomplishment for a woman who says the finance side was never a priority.
“I wasn’t that interested in the dollars-and-cents part of business,” she said recently. “My interest in starting Mary Kay Inc was to offer women opportunities that didn’t exist anywhere else.” And she did.
Mary Kay launched the firm at a time when business opportunities for women were limited. She encouraged women to join her sales force, and rewarded the top sellers with prizes including the famous pink Cadillac. (Pink was the company colour and its founder once had a sprawling pink mansion.)
“I want you to become the highest-paid women in America,” she often said at the corporation’s annual Dallas conventions and rally sessions. More than 150 women became millionaires because of Mary Kay Inc, a company spokesman reports.
Mary Kay Ash, née Mary Kathlyn Wagner, was born on May 12, 1918 not far from Houston, Texas. Her mother worked 14 hour days at a local restaurant while a young Mary cared for her ailing father. Her mother pushed her to succeed, saying: “You can do it”.
She married aged 17 and had three children, though her marriage later floundered when her husband entered the army. She trained to be a doctor, but still focused her energy on sales. But after 25 years in the business a male hired to be her assistant was soon promoted over her and she quit. She later launched Mary Kay Inc and enjoyed phenomenal success.
“We must figure out how to remain good wives and good mothers while triumphing in the workplace,” she once wrote. “This is no easy task for the woman who works full-time.”
Mary Kay is survived by her two sons, Richard and Ben. Her daughter Marylyn and husband Mel Ash had both passed away.
She leaves behind 16 grandchildren, 28 great grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
