Founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics Dies
By JOHN McFARLAND
Associated Press Writer
DALLAS (AP)--Mary Kay Ash, whose pink Cadillacs and eponymous cosmetics company made her one of the most famous women in American business, died at her home in Dallas on Thursday. She was 83.
Ash, who had been in fragile health in recent years, died of natural causes, Mary Kay Inc. said in a news release.
``The world has lost one of its greatest champions of women and one of the most loving and inspirational business leaders,'' said Ash's son, Richard Rogers, who is also co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer at Mary Kay.
Mary Kay Inc. grew from a sales force of 11 in 1963 to more than 750,000 in 37 countries and wholesale revenue of $1.3 billion last year. But Ash's fans said she was about more than profits, and enriched women's lives at a time when it was difficult for them to succeed in the corporate world.
``I wasn't that interested in the dollars-and-cents part of business,'' Ash once said. ``My interest in starting Mary Kay Inc. was to offer women opportunities that didn't exist anywhere else.''
Ash spent most of her life known simply as ``Mary Kay,'' one of the most recognizable names in the United States. As Mary Kay Corp.'s founder and chairman emeritus, she inspired devotion from a 400,000-member sales force.
Each year the convention she held in Dallas attracted thousands of saleswoman who paid their own way to hear, cheer and revere their founder.
With hard work, the saleswomen--and occasionally a salesman _ could move through the ranks of the company to earn the prized position of national sales director. The position earns an average of $280,000 each year, leading the company to claim that it has produced more wealthy women then any other company.
``I want you to become the highest-paid women in America,'' Ash said in her motivational speeches.
Mary Kay also created an award system designed specifically for women, including such items as mink coats, diamond rings and the famous pink Cadillac.
The compacts and boxes that contained her makeup were also pink, and Ash once owned a pink 19,000-square-foot mansion with a gigantic pink marble bathtub.
She was born Mary Kathlyn Wagner on May 12, 1918, in Houston. By age 6, she was caring for her seriously ill father while her mother worked 14 hours a day at a restaurant. Ash said her mother encouraged her to excel in everything from school work to selling Girl Scout cookies by telling her almost daily, ``You can do it.''
Ash married Houston radio personality Ben Rogers at 17 and had three children. Ash wrote in her autobiography that the marriage dissolved after Rogers entered the Army.
Moving to Dallas, Ash took a part-time job for Stanley Home Products, selling household goods at parties in women's homes in 1938. She studied to become a doctor, but focused on sales full-time as her success grew. She would write weekly sales goals in soap on her bathroom mirror.
Eleven years later, she joined another direct-sales company, World Gifts, as national sales director. According to a biography on her company's Web site, Ash quit in 1963 when a male colleague hired as her assistant was promoted over her at twice her salary.
``Those men didn't believe a woman had brain matter at all. I learned back then that as long as men didn't believe women could do anything, women were never going to have a chance,'' she told Texas Monthly magazine in 1995.
Out of work, Ash began to collect her thoughts for a how-to career book for women. The musings turned into her idea for Mary Kay Cosmetics.
``I began asking myself, 'Why are you theorizing about a dream company? Why don't you just start one?''' Ash said.
Ash bought a formulation for a skin-care cream developed by an Arkansas tanner, promoted it as a beauty product and recruited friends to sell ``Beauty by Mary Kay.'' Her sons worked for her.
Ash told employees to put God first, family second, and career third.
``We must figure out how to remain good wives and good mothers while triumphing in the workplace. This is no easy task for the woman who works full-time,'' she wrote.
``With your priorities in order, press on, and never look back. May all of your dreams come true. You can, indeed, have it all.''
The company was profitable almost immediately, and had nearly $200,000 in revenues the first year. But soon, Ash was entangled in lawsuits with former employees who bought what they said was the Arkansas tanner's original formula for beauty cream and started their own company.
The bitter fight was settled in 1969, and both sides were able to claim their formula came from a tanner, although Ash was barred from using the tanner's name or image in her promotional material.
Mary Kay Cosmetics grew rapidly in the 1970s, breaking $100 million in sales in 1979, and it sold stock to the public. Ash was profiled on CBS' ``60 Minutes.''
But sales sagged in the mid-'80s. Shares of the company lost more than 75 percent in value. In 1985, Ash and her family borrowed to buy the company back and take it private. New products were introduced and brochures were updated.
Ash retired as chairwoman in 1987. She was rarely seen in public after a stroke in 1996, although company officials said she watched videos of each year's Seminar to keep track of her company.
Rogers, who left the company in 1992, returned this year as chief executive. The company has tried to maintain its growth by expanding rapidly overseas and by targeting new markets, including a line of cosmetics and skin-care products for teen-agers.
Ash wrote three books: a 1981 autobiography called ``Mary Kay''; a business book, ``Mary Kay on People Management'' in 1984; and a motivational volume, ``Mary Kay--You Can Have It All,'' in 1995. All made best-seller lists.
Ash's husband, Dallas sales representative Mel Ash, whom she married in 1966, died of cancer in 1980. Her daughter, Marylyn Theard, died of pneumonia in 1991.
Ash is survived by her two sons, 16 grandchildren, 28 great grandchildren; and a great-great grandchild.
AP-NY-11-22-01 2141EST
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It's a buyers mkt for PINK Cadillacs now |
