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Estée Lauder
Estée Lauder with a customer (1966)
Born	Josephine Esther Mentzer July 1, 1906(1906-07-01) Corona, Queens, New York
Died	April 24, 2004 (aged 97) Manhattan, New York
Nationality	American

Estée Lauder (July 1, 1906^[1] – April 24, 2004) was the American co-founder, with her husband Joseph Lauder, of Estée Lauder Companies, a pioneering cosmetics company.

[edit] Biography

She was born Josephine Esther Mentzer in Corona, Queens, New York^[2], the daughter of a Hungarian mother^{[citation needed]} and a Czechoslovak father.^{[citation needed]} She was the only woman on TIME magazine's 1998 list of the 20 most influential business geniuses of the 20th century. She was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1988.

She married Joseph Lauder in 1930. They created the company together. They had two sons, Leonard and Ronald. Estée divorced Joseph in 1939, and re-married him in 1942. The couple remained married thereafter until his death in 1982. The Estée Lauder company was created in 1935. Her older son, Leonard Lauder, was chief executive of Estée Lauder and is now chairman of the board. Her younger son, Ronald Lauder, is a prominent philanthropist, a Republican political appointee in the Reagan administration, and developer of property in Berlin, among other endeavors.

Lauder died of cardiopulmonary arrest, aged 97.^[3]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Time magazine profile
• CNN report of passing
• Biography channel profile
• Short biography of the queen of cosmetics
• Estée Lauder (person) at Find a Grave
• Estee Lauder - Daily Telegraph obituary

Persondata
NAME	Lauder, Estée
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Mentzer, Josephine Esther
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Cosmetics company co-founder
DATE OF BIRTH	July 1, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH	Corona, Queens, New York
DATE OF DEATH	April 24, 2004
PLACE OF DEATH	Manhattan, New York