Ash, Mary Kay (1918-2001), was an American business executive and philanthropist who founded her own multibillion-dollar cosmetics empire. Mary Kay Inc. grew from a tiny storefront in Dallas to a global enterprise with an independent sales force in more than 35 countries. The company’s headquarters are in Addison, Texas.
Mary Kathlyn Wagner was born on May 12, 1918, in Hot Wells, Texas, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of Sierra Blanca. She married Julius Ben Rogers at age 17. The couple had three children. In 1939, as a young housewife, Mary Kay became a salesperson for Stanley Home Products. She demonstrated merchandise at home parties as a way to make sales. Her first marriage ended in divorce. She subsequently remarried.
Mary Kay left Stanley to work for World Gift Company in Dallas in 1952. In 1963, she struck out on her own, after her second husband, George Hallenback, died suddenly. With a $5,000 investment and the help of her 20-year-old son, Richard Rogers, she started Beauty by Mary Kay, a direct sales cosmetics business. Mary Kay bought original formulas for skin lotions from the family of an Arkansas tanner and opened a small store in Dallas with five products and nine salespeople. A tanner is a person who makes hides into leather by soaking them in a special liquid made from tree bark. The sellers bought their cosmetics from Mary Kay at wholesale prices and sold them directly to customers at retail prices. Much like in her early sales career, Mary Kay’s company sold cosmetics through at-home parties and other events. By the end of its second year, Mary Kay Cosmetics, as it was then called, had sold about $800,000 in products. In 1966, Mary Kay married Melville Jerome Ash, a salesman. Their marriage lasted until his death in 1980.
Mary Kay became known for her love of the color pink, which is still used in packaging the company’s products. She annually rewarded the company’s directors with the use of a pink Cadillac (an American luxury automobile). Mary Kay’s keen marketing skills and ability to work with people helped build her small cosmetics business into a global corporation. Today, the company makes more than 200 products, which are sold by more than 3 million independent beauty consultants worldwide.
Mary Kay also wrote several books, including three best sellers: Miracles Happen (2003), an autobiography first published as Mary Kay in 1981; Mary Kay: You Can Have It All (1995); and The Mary Kay Way (1984 and 2008). Mary Kay Ash died on Nov. 22, 2001.
