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Lillian Vernon

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Entrepreneur

The Resume

    (March 18, 1927-December 14, 2015)
    Born in Leipzig, Germany
    Birth name was Lilli Menasche
    Became a US citizen (1942)
    Founded the Lillian Vernon Corporation (1951), a catalog merchant (and later online retailer) specializing in low-cost items that could be monogrammed (at no extra charge)
    Chair and CEO (1951-89)
    Chair of the National Women’s Business Council (1995-97)

Why she might be annoying:

    She tried to shave a couple of years off her age: ‘One birth certificate says 1927, and one says 1929. I prefer 1929.’
    She was a workaholic perfectionist.
    She called the company her ‘third child.’
    She did not speak to her oldest son for two years after he left the company.
    She had plastic surgery.
    She was married three times, divorced twice.
    Her marital history may have influenced the inclusion of the catalog item that became her worst seller: a pillow with the motto ‘A woman who is looking for a husband has never had one.’

Why she might not be annoying:

    She became fluent in English by watching American films while working as an usher.
    Her family fled Nazi Germany for the Netherlands (1933) and later the US (1937).
    Her first $495 ad in ‘Seventeen’ magazine for personalized belts and purses produced $32,000 in orders.
    In her 70s, she continued travelling 200,000 miles a year searching for items at trade shows.
    She was the first woman to found a company listed on the American Stock Exchange.
    She received the Sunshine Award for her work with charities, including Meals on Wheels, Toys for Tots, Literacy Volunteers of America and her alma mater, New York University.
    She said, ‘I like being tough. Tough and smart.’

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 7 Votes: 71.43% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 9 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 8 Votes: 37.50% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 19 Votes: 42.11% Annoying