sad things

Evelyn Lauder Passed Away This Weekend

Evelyn Lauder.
Evelyn Lauder. Photo: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

Evelyn Lauder, the wife of Leonard Lauder and daughter-in-law of Estée Lauder, died on Saturday of ovarian cancer. Born in 1936 in Vienna, she and her parents emigrated to New York in 1940 as refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe; her father then opened a dress shop in Manhattan. Evelyn met Leonard on a blind date when she was a freshman at Hunter College, and they married four years later. Despite her husband’s wealth, Evelyn worked at the Estée Lauder Company throughout their marriage, eventually becoming the senior corporate vice-president and head of fragrance development worldwide. After her diagnosis with breast cancer in 1989, she founded the Pink Ribbon breast cancer awareness campaign, as well as the Breast Cancer Research Foundation in 1993 (she since raised over $350 million). She has been battling ovarian cancer since 2007.