Mary Kay Ash

Mary Kay Ash, born Mary Kathlyn Wagner in Hot Wells, Harris County, Texas, was the daughter of Edward Alexander and Lula Vember Hastings Wagner. Her mother was trained as a nurse and later became a manager of a restaurant in Houston. Ash attended Dow Elementary School and Reagan High School in Houston and graduated in 1934.

Ash married Ben Rogers at age 17. They had three children, Ben Jr., Marilyn Reed, and Richard Rogers. While her husband served in World War II, she sold books door-to-door. After her husband's return in 1945, they got divorced. She later married Charles Weaver, the brother of Mary C. Crowley who was the founder of Home Interiors and Gifts.

Ash went to work for Stanley Home Products in 1939. 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 Hallenbeck, planned to start Mary Kay Cosmetics. However, George died of a heart attack that same year. Ash was 45 years old.

One month after George's death, with a $5,000 investment from her oldest son, Ben Rogers, Jr., Ash started Mary Kay Cosmetics. Richard Rogers took George's place in the company. The company started its original storefront operation "Beauty by Mary Kay" in Dallas. They used a 500‐square‐foot storefront with nine saleswomen who had signed up. Ash copied the same “house party” model used by Stanley, Tupperware, and others. A Mary Kay representative would invite her friends over for free facials, then pitch the products. Profits rolled in, with double‐digit growth every year.

According to Gavenas:

Mary Kay was a very visible, very active, and almost ridiculously feminine‐looking role model: a God‐fearing, hard‐working, immaculately groomed mother of three who was doing everything within her power to see other women get ahead, and who loved mentoring so much that she referred to her saleswomen as her “daughters.” Also unlike Avon, Mary Kay made her saleswomen more profit per unit: a Mary Kay lipstick cost roughly double the price of an Avon lipstick and hence made twice the profit, while the home‐party format meant that several customers could be approached at once...Mary Kay made her company purposely inclusive, enabling her rapid expansion into Australia, South America, Europe, and Asia.