Evelyn Lauder - Pink Ribbon Campaign (1) Obituary

'She was our pillar of strength': Family's heartfelt tributes as Evelyn Lauder - the founder of the breast cancer pink ribbon campaign - dies aged 75


By Associated Press
Last updated at 2:13 PM on 14th November 2011

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Evelyn Lauder, who helped create the pink ribbon for cancer awareness, has died aged 75.


Lauder died at her Manhattan, New York home on Saturday from complications of non-genetic ovarian cancer. She had been diagnosed with cancer in 2007.


Lauder worked for more than 50 years for the beauty products giant, Estee Lauder, which was founded by her mother-in-law.

Evelyn Lauder, who created the pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness with a
friend in 1992, has died from complications of non-genetic ovarian cancer

She helped develop the company’s lines of skin care, makeup and fragrance, and is credited with coming up with the name of its popular Clinique brand during the 1960s.

Most recently, she held the title of senior corporate vice president.


Yet Lauder is best known as a champion of breast cancer research and for her role in creating the pink ribbon campaign.


In 1992, she worked with her friend Alexandra Penney, the former editor-in-chief of Self magazine, to create the campaign for breast cancer awareness.

It started as a small project with Lauder and her husband, Leonard, largely financing the bows given to women at department store makeup counters to remind them about breast exams.


It expanded into fundraising products, congressional designation of October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month and $330 million in donations — $50 million from Estee Lauder and its partners — to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, which Lauder also started.

Lauder, pictured in April at the Breast Cancer Research Foundation's Hot Pink Party
in New York, is credited with making pink ubiquitous with breast cancer

That money helped establish the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, which opened in 2009.

Just last month, she reminisced about the early days of the breast cancer campaign. When it launched, it was so little known that some people thought it symbolized AIDS awareness.

She said: ‘There had been no publicity about breast cancer, but a confluence of events — the pink ribbon, the colour, the press, partnering with Elizabeth Hurley, having Estee Lauder as an advertiser in so magazines and persuading so many of my friends who are health and beauty editors to do stories about breast health — got people talking.’

Then, three years after distributing the first pink ribbon, a flight attendant noted it on Lauder's lapel and said: ‘I know that's for breast cancer.’

The breast cancer awareness campaign has
 garnered many celebrity supporters,
including Elizabeth Hurley

‘From there, it became ubiquitous,’ she remembered.

Her other passion was photography, and she was the author of the book In Great Taste: Fresh, Simple Recipes for Eating and Living Well.

Born Evelyn Hausner in 1936 in Vienna, Austria, she fled Nazi-occupied Europe with her parents, and they settled in the U.S. She attended public schools in New York City and Hunter College, part of the City University of New York.

As a college freshman, she met her husband, the elder son of Estee Lauder and whose family owned what was then a small cosmetics company.

Lauder worked for 50 years for beauty company Estee Lauder, founded by her
mother-in-law.  Most recently, she was the senior corporate vice president.

‘We had five products in the line, we only had two or three colours in our lipsticks,’ she told cable news channel NY1 in 2005. ‘It was a baby company.’


The young couple married in 1959. Leonard Lauder is now chairman emeritus of the company. Estee Lauder died in 2004 at 97.


Leonard and Evelyn Lauder's son William is executive chairman of Estee Lauder Cos. Another son, Gary, is managing director of Lauder Partners LLC, a technology investment firm.

She is survived by her husband, two sons and five grandchildren.

'My mother carried the torch of our company heritage and the values that were passed to her by my grandmother, Mrs. Estee Lauder,' her son, William Lauder, said in a statement.

'My mother and father were life partners as well as business partners. They nurtured the culture and growth of the Estee Lauder companies, and as we grew, my mother was our creative compass and pillar of strength. Together my family and the company celebrate the beautiful person she was.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2060960/Evelyn-Lauder-dies-75-Breast-cancer-pink-ribbon-campaign-founder-died.html#ixzz1e41gUk3m

Evelyn Lauder - Pink Ribbon Campign (2) Obituary

Evelyn Lauder: Founder of the pink ribbon campaign for breast cancer awareness

Chris Maume, The Independent

Tuesday 15 November 2011

In her long career as an executive at Estée Lauder, the cosmetics company founded by her mother-in-law, Evelyn Lauder, who has died of complications from ovarian cancer, worked with many shades and hues, but pink was the colour that changed her life. In 1992, working with her friend Alexandra Penney, the former editor-in-chief of Self magazine, Lauder created the pink ribbon campaign for breast cancer awareness.

The campaign had small beginnings, when Lauder and her husband Leonard financed the bows given to women at department store make-up counters to remind them about breast examinations, following a brush with early-stage breast cancer. That grew into fund-raising products, leading to the US Congress designating October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the foundation by Evelyn Lauder of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Last month she recalled the early days of the campaign. "There had been no publicity about breast cancer, buta confluence of events – the pinkribbon, the colour, the press, partnering with Elizabeth Hurley, having Estée Lauder as an advertiser in so magazines and persuading so many of my friends who are health and beauty editors to do stories about breast health – got people talking."

Three years after the first pinkribbon was distributed, she said,a flight attendant noted one on Lauder's lapel and said, "I know that's for breast cancer."

Lauder said: "From there, it became ubiquitous."

She was born Evelyn Hausner in 1936 in Vienna. Her father, who had lived in Poland and Berlin before marrying the daughter of a Viennese lumber merchant, owned a lingerie shop. When Germany annexed Austria in 1938 the family fled, initially to Belgium and then to England. Evelyn's mother Mimi was interned on the Isle of Man – "The separation was very traumatic," Evelyn recalled. She was placed in a nursery until her mother was released, and in 1940, the family sailed to New York, where her father worked as a diamond cutter, then in 1947, the Lauders bought a dress shop in Manhattan.

Evelyn studied at Hunter College, part of the City University of New York. After receiving her degree, she was a public school teacher for several years.

As a college freshman, she had met her husband, the elder son of Estée Lauder, when she went with him on a blind date. On their second date Estée asked her to stay and be the hostess for a birthday party she was giving her son.

"So I stayed," Evelyn recalled. "What could I do? She was like a steamroller."

She and Leonard married in 1959, and she joined the family business, which was then a small concern. "We had five products in the line, we only had two or three colours in our lipsticks," she said. "It was a baby company."

The company had begun in 1946 when Joseph and Estée Lauder began producing cosmetics. At first, they only had four products, but two years later they established their first department store account, with Saks Fifth Avenue.

Evelyn Lauder rapidly became a valuable asset to the company, coming up with the name of the Clinique brand during the 1960s. Her teaching background was a springboard for one of her earliest contributions, creating the company's brand training programmes. She also measured colour standards in make-up, sold products in stores, and made personal appearances.

Most recently, she held the title of senior corporate vice president and Head of Fragrance Development Worldwide, a job for which her love of gardening and flowers served as inspiration. She led the development of some of the company's most successful perfumes.

Her other passion was photography, and her work is represented in many public and private collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, as well as leading medical facilities in the US and abroad.

She also had two books of photographs published, The Seasons Observed in 1994 and An Eye for Beauty in 2002. In September 2011 her works were on display at the Gagosian Gallery in London. She also wrote In Great Taste: Fresh, Simple Recipes for Eating and Living Well.

Lauder was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007, but she maintained her hectic schedule. Every October she appeared at cancer awareness events around the world.

Evelyn Hausner, teacher, businesswoman and health campaigner: born Vienna 12 August 1936; married 1959 Leonard Lauder (two sons); died New York 12 November 2011.


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/evelyn-lauder-founder-of-the-pink-ribbon-campaign-for-breast-cancer-awareness-6262269.html

Evelyn Lauder - Pink Ribbon Campaign (3)