Mary Kay Ash - What A Life

Mary Kay Ash was more than just some businesswoman. She did more than just create some business. She changed the world in which we live in, by giving women a chance to do what they want. She created an industry, built an empire, and all on the backs of woman, who before her were thought as incompetent and useless by the most influential people of the time. Mary Kay Ash opened the door for women to enjoy their lives and be able to do things previously thought of as impossible. She was a pioneer in pink; she created chances and tore down prejudice barriers one pink Cadillac at a time.

According to the article “Mary Kay Ash” on the Biography Resource Center, Mary Kay Ash was born on May 12, 1915 in Hot Wells, Texas. She was the youngest kid in her family. Her father, Edward Alexander Wagner, was hospitalized with tuberculosis when Mary Kay was very young. Mary Kay took over the household and tried to run it when her mom was working. At times, Mary Kay’s mom would call home and give instructions and encouragement like household chores or “You can do it.” At school, Mary Kay pushed herself to do well in school to make her mom happy. She wasn’t able to originally go to college because of the lack of finances her family had.

Mary Kay Ash. Biography Resource Center. Gale, 1998. Web. 25 Feb. 2010.

"Mary Kay Ash." Biography Resource Center. Gale, 2009. Web. 25 Feb. 2010.

After school, she married a popular singer from the radio, J. Ben Rogers. She then went to work at Stanley Home Products. As it was said in “Mary Kay Ash” by Newsmakers, Mary Kay Ash became “queen of sales” at Stanley Home Products. However, this wasn’t until, the previous year another woman won the award. Mary Kay then asked the woman to “demonstrate her sales presentation and took 19 pages of notes.” Mary Kay was determined to win the award and get an alligator purse like the woman did. However, when she won the award all she got was a “flounder light.” Mary Kay Ash was determined to do something and she accomplished it. This is why she was successful… She didn’t accept failure. She wouldn’t let anyone pull her down or stop her from doing what she needs to do what she wanted to. Later in life, this helped her become the most important American of all time. A few years later, Mary Kay quit her job after working at half the salary of her male acquaintances and then she watched a male get a promotion.

Newsmakers. "Mary Kay Ash." Biography Resource Center. Gale, 1996. Web. 27 Feb. 2010.

Jackson, Kenneth T. "Mary Kathlyn Ash." Biography Resource Center. Gale, 2004. Web. 25 Feb. 2010.

To start, Mary Kay wanted to write a book and tell the world why women should get the same benefits men do. She started to write about the perfect business and then an idea started to formulate in her head. She thought maybe she could start a business where you were rewarded for good work. She then had to decide what to sell. She wanted to sell something that would be inexpensive, with repeated sales. She decided to use a face cream her friend had made. The only problem was that it had a horrible smell. Mary Kay decided to take care of this problem by hiring a chemist to remove the smell. Unfortunately, one 4 weeks before the opening of “Beauty by Mary Kay” her husband died. After this, her lawyer and accountant told her not to continue with her business because they didn’t think she could do it without them. Soon her business took off with her “beauty consultants” going from 9 to 318. In case you didn’t know, her beauty consultants were actually sales people. In 1967, her company went public to keep up with demand. This happened because of Mary Kay’s special sale style that really connected with her customers and therefore they trusted her with their skin. That was why her business exploded. People knew they could get good, dependable skin care products. Consultants were told not to make the customers by the products but rather be “teachers” and teach the customers how to care for the skin and make themselves look beautiful with the makeup they had. It helped her customers use the makeup they were provided and so they bought the product.

Newsmakers. "Mary Kay Ash." Biography Resource Center. Gale, 1996. Web. 27 Feb. 2010.

Lopez, Kathryn J. "Strong Women Wear Lipstick." Student Resource Center - Gold. Gale, 2002. Web. 24 Feb. 2010.

Over time, Mary Kay Cosmetics has become a powerhouse in makeup sales, and it still follows the same principles set up by its founder decades ago. It still attempts to put trust into the hearts of many particular makeup users by getting personal and not forcing the issue. In this same way, Mary Kay has pushed for woman rights. She also added a new thing to solve in cancer after her husband died in 1980. Mary Kay may have died in 2001, but she left the company in the hands of her son and her message resonates in the lives of women across the globe.

Newsmakers. "Mary Kay Ash." Biography Resource Center. Gale, 1996. Web. 27 Feb. 2010.

Work Cited

Mary Kay Ash. Biography Resource Center. Gale, 1998. Web. 25 Feb. 2010.

"Mary Kay Ash." Biography Resource Center. Gale, 2009. Web. 25 Feb. 2010.

Lopez, Kathryn J. "Strong Women Wear Lipstick." Student Resource Center - Gold. Gale, 2002. Web. 24 Feb. 2010.

Newsmakers. "Mary Kay Ash." Biography Resource Center. Gale, 1996. Web. 27 Feb. 2010.

Jackson, Kenneth T. "Mary Kathlyn Ash." Biography Resource Center. Gale, 2004. Web. 25 Feb. 2010.

Why Mary Kay Ash is the Most Influential American Ever... 1st Reason

Mary Kay Ash is the most influential American because she didn’t need other people to get her ideas across. She didn’t need to shoot somebody, or write some fantastic speech. She wasn’t going to beg you to follow her or ask you to join her cause. She led by example, not with her words. She didn’t want to be the leader, she became it. She went out and started a business in a time where everybody told her she couldn’t do it. Sure she is just another piece to the puzzle of American history, but she changed the way the puzzle fit together. She’s not as recognized as Martin Luther King Jr. She didn’t do one huge thing to change the way the world is now like Abraham Lincoln. She built her message discreetly and carefully without supreme power, but supreme commitment and belief. She was directly affected by the injustice and so she singlehandedly took down the belief system of millions. She did it subtly , while being larger than life. Mary Kay Ash opened the business world up to women for them to be successful. She saved families. Her actions have given people the opportunity to go from poverty to paradise. She became the first women to have a Fortune 5oo company. She did it with her actions. She worried about herself but fought for women across the globe. She didn’t care what people thought about her ideas and beliefs of how a business should be run, because she wrote the rules we live by today. She changed the world without political power. She changed the world without people following her beliefs. She just went out there and sold makeup. She gave away Pink Cadillacs and diamond bracelets. Mary Kay trusted in the American people and herself that they wouldn’t let the status quo get confused with the equal rights they deserved.

Mary Kay Ash opened what was originally “Beauty by Mary Kay” just a few weeks after her husband died. Her accountant and lawyer advised her not to continue with the opening due to the fact that it would only be her running the business. She ignored this advise because she believed in herself. Within a year, her business had exploded with her number of “beauty consultants” growing from 9 to over 300. And her business wasn’t about pressuring the consumer to buy her product through one-on-one sessions, but rather house parties with many consumers teaching them how to use the makeup whether they chose to us their products or not. This genuine care for the customer was one of the reasons people loved her product. They also enjoyed what her business stood for. Each year Mary Kay would hold a convention to give away gifts to her top salespeople. She wanted for women to be proud of the way they looked. Eventually, she stepped down from chairman and gave the position to her son, but she never lost the influence in her company until she died in 2001.

Her company was great, but that was never the most important thing to her. This is what separates the great people from the true upper echelon of people in history. Putting the needs of millions of others in front of the select few peoples’ needs that you truly care about. I guess the best way to say it would be to love mankind more than more than a man. Or in this case, womankind. But Mary Kay didn’t need a podium or Congress to do it. She made her message clear, and had a burning desire to show the world why she was right, but she did it with a larger than life personality and a subtle approach. Her actions were bipolar, but she had made up her mind.

Why Mary Kay Ash is the Most Influential American Ever... 2nd Reason

Mary Kay Ash has done so many things in her life. She broke barriers. She was successful, rich, and world renowned. However, she had another barrier she wanted to break down. However, she couldn’t break this one by herself. Also, it took death by a near and dear husband to trigger this reaction. But the principle is the same. She wanted to put other people ahead of her friends and family because she cared about the world so very much.

The little pain we are talking about is cancer. It is horrible. It kills so many people. One day, the legendary Mary Kay was struck by it. Perhaps not directly, but it had just as big an impact on her life. Her dead husband, only because of cancer, triggered Mary Kay into a frenzy. She cared for him so deeply, that after mourning him properly, she did something about the cause. She didn’t mope but went out and fundraised to cure cancer. She may have saved many lives too. In 1993, she had a cancer research center founded in her namesake in Dallas, Texas. Now this may seem like a minor thing because now we have cancer centers all over the place. But in 1993, this was huge because this may have given us some of the groundbreaking discoveries we have now. Mary Kay was crucial in making people aware of cancer and the harm it can bring.

Mary Kay Ash is a great woman, but this tragedy helped her spread her reach into people’s lives even more and she saved so many, mankind as a whole should be grateful. It just shows that Mary Kay cares about everybody, and wants everybody to live a wonderful life, and then goes out and grabs the problem by the horns. This daring and caring is what makes her the greatest American ever. It is unfortunate that it cost her husband his life, but the truth in life usually is there is a light at the end of the dark tunnel, and that proved true in Mary Kay’s case.

Work Cited

Newsmakers. "Mary Kay Ash." Biography Resource Center. Gale, 1996. Web. 27 Feb. 2010

Mary Kay Ash Fun Facts

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• Mary Kay Ash was the first women to be the head of a company in the New York Stock Exchange


• “Mary Kay Ash’s autobiography, Mary Kay, has sold over 1 million copies.


• In 1993, Mary Kay was given the dedication of the “Mary Kay Ash Center for Cancer Immunotherapy Research at St. Paul Medical Center in Dallas.”


• Mary Kay Cosmetics is now in operation in over 25 countries with 475,000 sales people working for the company.


• According to “Ash, Mary Kay (c. 1915-)” by William Friedricks in Student Resource Center – Gold, annually, Mary Kay would hold a convention where she would give away prizes such as jewelry and furs. However, the prize really was the Pink Cadillacs she was giving away to some of her top sales people.


• Mary Kay bought back her company and took it off the stock exchange in 1985

Work Cited

Newsmakers. "Mary Kay Ash." Biography Resource Center. Gale, 1996. Web. 27 Feb. 2010.

Storg, Jennifer C. "Mary Kay Ash." Student Resource Center - Gold. Gale, 1998. Web. 24 Feb. 2010.

Friedricks, William. "Ash, Mary Kathlyn (c. 1915-)." Student Resource Center - Gold. Gale, 2003. Web. 2 Mar. 2010.

Time. "Mary Kay Paints a Private Face. (company Directors Agreed to Sell Back the Firm to Founder for $300 Million)." Student Resource Center - Gold. Gale, 15 July 1985. Web. 2 Mar. 2010.

Response Question #1

What happened 4 weeks before Mary Kay was opening her business?

Response Question #2

What did Mary Kay Ash's last husband die from?

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