Mary Kay Ash

Vocation

American businesswoman and founder of Mary Kay Inc., a multi-level marketing/direct sales company that sells cosmetics products. Ash married Ben Rogers at age 17. They had three children. While her husband served in World War II, she sold books door-to-door. After her husband's return in 1945, they divorced. 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, George Arthur Hallenbeck, planned to start Mary Kay Cosmetics. However, one month before Ash and Hallenbeck started Beauty by Mary Kay, as the company was then called, Hallenbeck died of a heart attack. One month after Hallebeck's death on September 13, 1963 when she was 45 years old with her life savings of $5,000 and with the help of her 20-year old son, Richard Rogers taking her late husband's place, Ash started Mary Kay Cosmetics. 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 22 November 2001 at age 83. Link to Wikipedia biography