Mary Kay Ash, who died on November 22nd aged 83, was the inspirational founder of a billion-dollar cosmetics empire with a sales force of 850,000 independent agents in 37 countries. Her eponymous company became the largest direct seller of skin-care products in the US registering sales of $1.2 billion last year.
Asked how she became one of America's leading businesswomen, she replied: "The answer is I was middle-aged, had varicose veins and I didn't have time to fool around. Have you heard the definition of a woman's needs? From 14 to 40, she needs good looks; from 40 to 60, she needs personality; and I'm here to tell you that after 60, she needs cash."
Mary Kay Ash, known as the "High Priestess of Pink", lived and worked in Dallas, Texas. She drove a pink Cadillac and, for some years, lived in a pink 30-room mansion with 11 bathrooms, one of which was modelled on that of her friend, Liberace.
The house was sold in 1994, and she returned to her former, more modest residence where she lived alone. She continued to shop for herself at the local supermarket until she suffered a stroke in 1996.
She was born Mary Kathlyn Wagner in Hot Wells, Texas, on May 12th, 1918. Her mother, who had trained as a nurse, worked a 14-hour day managing a restaurant. At the age of seven, her older siblings having left home, she began caring for her invalid father.
At 17 she married Ben Rogers, a radio broadcaster and musician. The couple had three children before he left to serve in the second World War. On his return he requested a divorce and, although the marriage had been unhappy, the break-up left her deeply dejected.
However, with three children to support, she moved to Dallas where she took a part-time job for Stanley Home Products, selling household goods. She studied to become a doctor, but devoted herself full-time to sales as her talent for marketing came to the fore.
She later moved to another direct-sales company, World Gifts, as national sales director. But she left when a male colleague, hired as her assistant, was promoted over her at twice her salary. "I couldn't believe God meant a woman's brain to bring 50 cents on the dollar," she said later.
She went into business on her own in 1963 with $5,000 in savings and a skin-care formula that she had bought for $500. Mary Kay Cosmetics was launched with nine saleswomen and her 20-year-old son, Richard Rogers, as financial administrator. Mary Kay Ash adopted the "Golden Rule" as her guiding philosophy and encouraged employees and members of her sales force to prioritise their lives with God first, family second and career third.
The company quickly prospered. Within two years, wholesale sales to a network of agents or "beauty consultants" reached almost $1 million. The consultants then sold the cosmetics, packaged in trademark pink, at double the wholesale price.
From the outset, Mary Kay Ash inspired near-religious zeal among her predominantly female sales force. She led by example, cooking for 200 people at the first annual staff gathering which was held in a warehouse decorated with balloons and crepe paper.
Later gatherings were more lavish. Company seminars were held over three days in Las Vegas-style settings. Academics from the Harvard Business School paid to attend the education sessions where they heard at first hand the Mary Kay Ash recipe for success.
"I want you to become the highest-paid women in America," she told her devoted sales force. "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."
It wasn't all plain sailing for Mary Kay Cosmetics. In 1976 the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange but in the early and mid-1980s sales declined and the stock price dropped. In 1985 the company returned to private family ownership and seven years later qualified for inclusion in the Fortune 500 list.
A company spokesman estimates that over 150 women have earned at least $1 million working for Mary Kay Cosmetics. Some consultants, in a technique reminiscent of pyramid selling, top up their earnings by recruiting others which entitles them to a percentage of the recruits' sales.
Mary Kay Ash did not enjoy universal approval. There were women who wouldn't, and still won't, wear the shade of girly pink that she trademarked. Women who came to share her business philosophy believe that it empowered them while critics claim that they were duped.
Mary Kay Ash published three books, the third of which, You Can Have It All (1995), topped the Wall Street Journal's best-seller lists. In 1996 she established the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation, which provides funding for cancer research, and twice served as honorary chairman of the Texas Breast Screening Project.
Mary Kay Ash was predeceased in 1980 by her third husband, Mel Ash, and in 1991 by her daughter, Marylin Reed; she is survived by two sons, Richard and Ben.
Mary Kay Ash: born 1918; died, November 2001