Lillian Vernon, Creator of a Bustling Catalog Business, Dies at 88.

(Timely, as we bought MANY articles from her at holidays, as daughters grew up. They are now in their 30s, and I STILL have the monogrammed Ballet Shoes towels we gave them.)

Lillian Vernon, who created a sprawling catalog business that specialized in personalized gifts and ingenious gadgets and made her an American household name, died on Monday in Manhattan. She was 88.

Her death was confirmed by her son Fred P. Hochberg, the president and chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

Ms. Vernon, who had come to the United States as a Jewish immigrant from Germany fleeing the Nazis, began her mail-order business in 1951, and it rapidly flourished. At one time it had nine catalogs, 15 outlet stores, two websites, a business-to-business division and yearly revenues close to $300 million.

In 1987, Lillian Vernon was the first company owned by a woman to be listed on the American Stock Exchange. In 1995, President Bill Clinton appointed her chairwoman of the National Women’s Business Council.

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

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/business/lillian-vernon-creator-of-a-bustling-catalog-business-dies-at-88.html?