Lillian Vernon, Founder of Rye-Based Catalog Empire, Dies

Lillian Vernon, whose namesake mail-order catalogs were shopped by generations of Americans, died in Manhattan Monday at the age of 88.

Her consumer and B-to-B company, which grew to include a string of outlet stores and other ventures, generated annual revenues of about $300 million, reports The New York Times.

The company, in 1987, also became the first one owned by a woman to be listed on the American Stock Exchange.

“She was a phenomenal merchandiser. When she started, there were only huge books like Sears and Montgomery Ward that had every kind of merchandise, like a department store,” Katie Muldoon, a direct marketing consultant, told the Times. “Lillian Vernon created a new retail market, catalogs with a theme: personalized products that you couldn’t find anywhere else.”

Her success rose out of humble beginnings in the United States where, as a Jewish immigrant, she settled after fleeing Nazi Germany in the early 1930s.

She used money from her first wedding presents to start her catalog business, which sold popular, and sometimes quirky, monogrammed items as diverse as pillows and power tools.

Vernon was a trailblazing entrepreneur and businesswoman, and in Westchester the Women’s Enterprise Development Center named an award after her. She also was named chairwoman of the National Women’s Business Council by President Bill Clinton in 1995, according to the Times.

In 2003, Vernon sold her company, which is now owned by Current USA, a division of the Taylor Corp.

She is survived by her sons, David Hochberg and Fred Hochberg, and her third husband Paolo Martino.

Click here to read the full story on The New York Times website.

Photo: Lillian Vernon. Photo credit: NYU