Lillian Vernon (Entrepreneur)

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Lillian Vernon (middle; 2012)

Lillian Vernon (born on 18th March 1927 as Lilli Menashe in Leipzig , died on 14. December 2015 in Manhattan , New York was) an American businesswoman German origin. In 1951 she founded the Lillian Vernon Corporation mail order company named after her .

Life

Lillian Vernon came from a wealthy Jewish family . Her father Hermann had a textile company in Leipzig. The family emigrated from Nazi Germany and came to the United States via Amsterdam in 1937 . Lillian attended New York University for two years and married Samuel Hochberg in 1950. They initially lived in Mount Vernon , New York , where their first son was born. The place name served her as a suggestion for the company name. She advertised in Seventeen magazine and initially sold personalized handbags and belts from her father's leather goods company to young women. She soon had success. She sold decorative items for Christmas , but also for Easter , Valentine's Day and the national holiday . The first catalog appeared in 1956 and the Lillian Vernon Corporation was founded in 1965. In the 1970s the company had annual sales of $ 60 million.

Her firm was the first woman founded on the American Stock Exchange in 1987 . Vernon sold the company in 2003 after the dot-com bubble burst . The company now sells children's items, gifts, housewares, and garden items in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

family

Vernon had an older brother, Fred. He served in the US Army during World War II and died on the Normandy landings in 1944 . Lillian Vernon was married three times; in her first marriage she had two sons.

Charity

Lillian Vernon donated a building for New York University's Creative Writing Program . She was also involved with Citymeals-on-Wheels and the Society of Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra .

Publications

  • Lilian Vernon: An eye for winners. How I built one of America's greatest direct-mail businesses. HarperCollins, New York 1996, ISBN 088730818X .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alex Witchel: `` Sometimes a great notion. '' Nytimes.com, January 16, 1997, accessed December 21, 2015
  2. ↑ Information on the company's website , accessed on December 21, 2015
  3. ↑ Valerie Cruice: Starting simple, the Story of a business. nytimes.com, May 24, 1998, accessed December 21, 2015
  4. ↑ Biography on a page of the National Women's History Museum ( Memento of the original from September 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 21, 2015 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nwhm.org
personal data
SURNAME Vernon, Lillian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Menasche, Lilli (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American businesswoman
DATE OF BIRTH March 18, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH December 14, 2015
Place of death Manhattan , New York