Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart Bloopers
Martha Stewart at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival
Martha Stewart (née Kostyra; August 3, 1941) is an American business magnate, author, magazine publisher, andtelevision personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, and merchandising. Her syndicated talk show,Martha, is broadcast throughout the world, she has written numerous bestselling books, and she is the publisher ofMartha Stewart Living magazine.
In 2004, she was convicted of lying to investigators about a stock sale and served five months in a West Virginiafederal prison. Although the media widely speculated that the situation would effectively be the end of her media empire, Stewart began a comeback campaign in 2005, with her company returning to profitability the following year.[6]
Martha Stewart at the Metropolitan Opera opening in 2008
Martha Stewart was born in Jersey City, New Jersey to middle-class Polish American parents, Edward “Eddie” Kostyra (c. 1912 – 1979) and Martha Ruszkowski Kostyra (b. September 16, 1914, Buffalo, New York – d. November 16, 2007, Norwalk, Connecticut).[7] She lived in Jersey City until the age of 3, when her family moved toNutley. She was raised in Nutley along with her five siblings. She took the name “Grace” for her confirmation name before graduating from Nutley High School.
At the age of 15, Stewart was featured in a television commercial for Unilever soap. Her next brush with fame came in 1961, when she became the occasional babysitter for the children of Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, and Gil McDougald of the New York Yankees. The Mantles had four boys, all under the age of ten and Merlyn Mantle was overwhelmed. Martha would organize birthday parties and babysit for all four. “They would behave for Martha”, declared Martha, and her domestic career thus began.
Stewart’s mother taught her how to cook and sew. Later, she learned the processes of canning and preserving when she visited her grandparents’ home in Buffalo, New York. Her father had a passion for gardening, and passed on much of his knowledge and expertise to his daughter. Stewart was also active in many extracurricular activities, such as the school newspaper and the Art Club. During this time, Stewart began a modeling career. She was hired and appeared in several television commercials and magazines, including one of Tareyton‘s famous “Smokers would rather fight than switch!” cigarette advertisements.
Initially intending to major in chemistry, she switched to art and European History, and later architectural history. It was around this time that she met and later married Andrew Stewart, on July 1, 1961. She left Barnard but continued her moderately successful modeling career, while her husband finished his law degree at Yale Law School. She returned to Barnard a year later, to graduate with a double major in History and Architectural History. In 1965, her only child, daughter Alexis Stewart, was born.
Following Entertaining’s success, Stewart released many more books under the Clarkson Potter publishing imprint, including Martha Stewart’s Quick Cook (1983), Martha Stewart’s Hors D’oeuvres (1984), Martha Stewart’s Pies & Tarts(1985), Weddings (1987), The Wedding Planner (1988), Martha Stewart’s Quick Cook Menus (1988), and Martha Stewart’s Christmas (1989), among others. During this time, she also authored dozens of newspaper columns, magazine articles and other pieces onhomemaking, and made numerous television appearances on programs such as The Oprah Winfrey Show and Larry King Live. Andrew and Martha Stewart divorced in 1989.
