Lillian Vernon (businesswoman)
| Lillian Vernon | |
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Vernon in Manhattan, July 2012
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| Born |
Lilli Menasche March 18, 1927 Leipzig, Weimar Republic |
| Died | December 14, 2015 (aged 88) Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Founder and CEO of The Lillian Vernon Corporation |
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Lillian Vernon (born Lilli Menasche; March 18, 1927 – December 14, 2015) was an American businesswoman and philanthropist. She founded the Lillian Vernon Corporation in 1951 and served as its chairwoman and CEO until July 1989, though she continued to serve as executive chairwoman until 2003, when the company was taken private by Zelnick Media. When it went public in 1987, Lillian Vernon Corporation was the first company traded on the founded by a woman. New York University's Lillian Vernon Writers House is named after her and houses the University's prestigious creative writing program.
Lillian Vernon was born Lilli Menasche in Leipzig, Germany in 1927 to Erna Feiner Menasche and Herman Menasche, a successful dry goods merchant (she later changed her name to Vernon, borrowing it from Mount Vernon, New York, where she settled with her first husband Samuel Hochberg). In 1933, Vernon's brother was attacked by an anti-Jewish moby, and the family fled Nazi Germany to Amsterdam. The family emigrated to the United States in 1937.
Taking up residence in New York City, her father, Herman Menasche, sold lingerie and later established a manufacturing company that specialized in leather goods, many of which were designed by Vernon. Vernon became a U.S. citizen in 1942. Her brother, Fred Menasche, later enlisted in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Army and she joined a Woman's Auxiliary Canteen in support of the war effort. Fred Menasche, serving in Normandy, was killed in a grenade attack.
Vernon attended New York University from 1947 to 1949. In 1949, Vernon married Samuel Hochberg, who worked in his parents' women’s clothing store. To supplement their family income, Vernon started a mail order service from the kitchen of her Mount Vernon home. She named the service the Vernon Specialties Company.
At the age of twenty-four, using her combined wedding gifts, Vernon invested $2,000 in the business and placed her first advertisement in Seventeen magazine for personalized purses and belts. She received an overwhelming response and her business was launched. In the first years, the size of the business was limited to Vernon and her kitchen table, where she sorted and filled orders. The Vernon Specialties Company focused primarily on products for young women, advertising in magazines focused on that emergent market. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Vernon and Hochberg began to create their own jewelry, which they sold through the catalog. One particularly successful product, a magnetized bobby pin cup, attracted the interest of Revlon in 1962. Revlon offered them a distribution contract shortly thereafter. Other cosmetics companies including Elizabeth Arden, Max Factor, and Maybelline followed suit.
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