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New York Times Obituary
November 23, 2001
Mary Kay Ash, Who Built a Cosmetics Empire, Dies at 83
By ENID NEMY
Mary Kay Ash, who built a billion- dollar beauty empire from a $5,000 investment in 1963, and who motivated hundreds of thousands of consultants around the world with a combination of rewards, recognition and religion, died yesterday at her home in Dallas. She was 83.
She died of natural causes, said Jim Lawrence, a spokesman for Mary Kay Inc. in Dallas. Mrs. Ash had been in frail health since she suffered a stroke in 1996.
Mrs. Ash, who preferred to be called Mary Kay, was 45 when she started her company, which sells its products through home and office demonstrations by sales representatives. Within two years, the company's wholesale sales had reached almost $1 million.
"I've been asked a number of times, `How did you succeed so quickly?' " she once said. "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." Her company eventually became the largest direct seller of skin-care products in the country.
Last year, the company had sales of $1.2 billion and more than 850,000 sales consultants in 37 countries, ranging from Britain, Australia and Japan to Singapore and Brunei.
Mrs. Ash, who was known as the high priestess of pink, was one of the better known figures in Dallas. She drove a pink Cadillac and, for some years, lived in a $5 million, 30-room pink palace with 28-foot high ceilings, a Grecian pool, crystal chandeliers and 11 bathrooms, one of which duplicated that of her friend, Liberace. The house was sold in 1994, and Mrs. Ash, who was twice widowed and once divorced, returned to the old and less elaborate house where she lived alone. A security guard generally trailed her, even as she pushed her cart in the local supermarket.
Her almost mythical stature in her company was as glittering as her diamonds. Her unique public popularity engendered such enthusiasm during the company's annual seminar, a three-day multimillion-dollar extravaganza, that she often had to use little-known passageways to elude her fans. More than 35,000 sales representatives and directors and, in some years, professors from the Harvard Business School, paid to attend the education sessions at her seminars in Dallas. The highlight of the seminar was Award Night, in which Mrs. Ash honored those who were the highest achievers for her company. The awards were presented amid a show that would rival those in Las Vegas.
The glitzy seminars were a far cry from the initial company get-together in 1964, held in a warehouse decorated with balloons and crepe paper. Mrs. Ash boned and cooked chicken for 200 people, made the jalapeno dressing and Jell-O salad herself and served it all on paper plates.
As the seminars grew in size and lavishness, the rewards to stellar sales representatives grew in kind. In later years, the annual awards amounted to about $6 million — dream vacations, jewels, furs and pink Cadillacs (winners received a pink Mercedes in Germany and a pink top-of-the line Toyota in Taiwan). By 1994, 7,000 cars, valued at more than $100 million, had been given to sales representatives.
"Recognition is the key," Mrs. Ash said, explaining her success and how she devised her corporate symbols to reward her sales force. One, labeled Ladder of Success, was a gold pin with each rung marked with a jewel. A ladder covered with diamonds signified a top performer.
Mary Kathyln Wagner was born in Hot Wells, Tex., on May 12, 1918. Her mother, who had trained as a nurse, worked as the manager of a restaurant. At the age of 7, an older brother and sister having already left home, she began cooking and caring for her father, an invalid who had been in a sanatorium with tuberculosis for three years
She was married at 17. Her husband, Ben Rogers, was a radio personality in Houston and a member of a musical group called Hawaiian Strummers. The couple had three children before he left to serve in World War II. On his return, he asked for a divorce and although Mrs. Ash acknowledged that the marriage had been unhappy, the request left her, as she put it, at "the lowest point of my life."
With three children to support it did, however, set her off on her career. She worked for 25 years in direct sales, pitching child psychology books at the outset and later conducting demonstrations for Stanley Home Products at parties organized in private homes.
The company that qualified for inclusion in the Fortune 500 list in 1992 opened its doors in September 1963, backed by a $5,000 bank account. Her second husband planned to go into the business with her but died of a heart attack a month before the start of the business. She decided to carry on with her plans, despite the advice of her lawyer and her accountant. The business opened with nine saleswomen and her 20- year-old son, Richard Rogers, a sales representative for Prudential Life Insurance, as financial administrator.
The skin-care products that formed the basis of the company were developed by J. W. Heath, an Arkansas tanner who noticed that his hands looked younger than his face and began experimenting with the solution he used in his work. The formulas were passed on to his daughter, Ova Heath Spoonemore, who, sometime later, acted as the hostess at a Stanley Home Products party where Mrs. Ash was conducting the demonstration. When that part of the get-together was over, Mrs. Spoonemore handed out jars with penciled labels to her guests, all of whom had beautiful skin. She explained to Mrs. Ash that the women were her guinea pigs. Mrs. Ash, who also received some samples, became a fan and in 1963 bought the formulas from the Heath heirs for $500.
The philosophy of the fledgling company was based on three principles enunciated by Mrs. Ash — treating others as they themselves would like to be treated, putting God first, family second and career third, and the belief that with praise and encouragement, everyone could succeed.
Although the product line was added to over the years — there are now more than 200 items for women and men in skin, hair, nail and body care and sun protection — the Mary Kay formula for success changed little. Consultants remained independent, buying products at wholesale and selling at retail, and from the beginning there were no accounts receivable or personal checks accepted. Orders are paid for with cashier's checks, money orders or credit cards, and consultants are encouraged to conduct their own business in the same way.
In addition to her financial policy, Mrs. Ash also decided that there would be no fixed territories. Consultants who line up recruits in other cities and states still receive commissions on the recruits' purchases although the newcomers are trained and guided by the directors in their home territories. The unusual system worked because, as Mrs. Ash put it, "each sales director thinks `I'm helping her but someone else is helping my recruits in other cities.' "
Shares of Mary Kay were listed in 1968, first in the over-the-counter market and eight years later on the New York Stock Exchange. In the early and mid-80's, sales declined and the stock price dropped. In 1985, the company returned to private family ownership through a $450 million leveraged buyout.
Mrs. Ash's third husband, Mel Ash, who was in the wholesale gift business, died in 1980. Her daughter, Marylyn Reed, died in 1991. She is survived by two sons, Richard and Ben, both of Dallas, 16 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
A friend once told Mrs. Ash, "Mary Kay Cosmetics was a divine accident looking for a place to happen." Her reply summed up her philosophy: "In 1963, the social forces that now support the financial and legal equality of women had not gained public favor. And yet here was a company that would give women all the opportunities I had never had. I don't think God wanted a world in which a woman would have to work 14 hours a day to support her family, as my mother had done. I believe he used this company as a vehicle to give women a chance."