The businesswoman daughter-in-law of brand founder Estee Lauder died at her home in New York on Saturday (12Nov11).
Lauder’s legacy includes the co-creation of the pink ribbon campaign for breast cancer awareness.
She helped create the bows to remind Estee Lauder customers about breast exams in the early 1990s and they have become a symbol of women’s cancer survival ever since.
The success of her campaign prompted U.S. politicians to designate October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month annually.
The money raised from the sale of the ribbons and other related items helped Lauder establish the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, which opened in 2009.
Lauder was diagnosed with cancer in 2007.
She was born in Austria in 1936 and arrived in New York after fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe with her parents. She wed Estee Lauder’s son Leonard in 1959.
The couple’s sons, William and Gary, are executives in the Lauder organisation.
