Marjorie Merriweather Post at her desk, circa 1942.
Library of Congress
Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans tribute plaque affixed to the front of Tech Tower at Georgia Tech, photographed in 2007.
and public service, Marjorie approached every challenge with practical resolve: see the problem, orchestrate the solution. During World War I, when medical supplies were scarce, she sent an entire hospital to France; when the ship carrying it sank, she sent another. For these efforts she received the French Legion of Honor. During the Great Depression, she personally funded and supervised a Salvation Army feeding station and chaired a state unemployment relief committee.
Her personal life was as expansive as her philanthropy. With her second husband, E. F. Hutton, she lived in a 54-room Manhattan apartment, built the 118-room Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, cruised the seas on a four-masted yacht and built a lavish Adirondack camp that hosted foreign dignitaries. With her third husband, ambassador Joseph Davies, she lived in Moscow in the late 1930s, where she amassed an extraordinary collection of Russian art and decorative objects later housed at Hillwood in Washington, DC, which is now a museum.
Post’ s legacy is one of visionary leadership and enduring impact. She transformed a regional cereal maker into General Foods, a powerhouse of 20th-century consumer brands, through bold acquisitions and innovation. At the same time, her philanthropy enriched American cultural life and set a high standard for civic responsibility.
Though these remarkable women reached business leadership through different routes— inheritance, marriage or widowhood— they did so in eras when women were largely excluded from such roles. What began as necessity became visionary leadership that transformed their companies. They mastered the full range of business operations, from branding and intellectual property to global expansion and acquisitions, while recognizing that fulfilling their duty to shareholders required cultivating trust among employees and loyalty among customers.
Their stories deserve to be remembered not only because they shattered ceilings, but because they forged enduring models of corporate leadership. They were ahead of their time— and perhaps ahead of ours.
Stephanie Cuba writes and speaks on professional development for university students and young professionals. She is a real estate developer and has served on the board of a for-profit charter school. Stephanie is co-author, with Lawrence Cunningham, of Margin of Trust: The Berkshire Business Model and The Warren Buffett Shareholder.
Sources
“ Anna Bissell’ s Enduring Impact: Celebrating a Legacy of Service.” Bissell Homecare, Inc. March 14, 2025.
Ewing, Kelley M.“ Letitia Pate Whitehead Evans( 1872 – 1953).” Dictionary of Virginia Biography. Library of Virginia. 2016.
Filing Radar. Abbott Laboratories. https:// www. filingradar. com / company / ABT / overview
Larcker, David and Brian Tayan. Pioneering Women on Boards: Pathways of the First Female Directors. Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford Closer Look Series. September 3, 2013.
Much, Marilyn.“ Anna Sutherland Bissell Knew How to Clean Up in the Sweeper Market.” Investor’ s Business Daily. October 22, 2018.
Rubin Stuart, Nancy.“ Marjorie Merriweather Post: The Philanthropic Heiress Who Built Mar-A-Lago.” The Saturday Evening Post. November 14, 2023.
Rubin, Nancy. American Empress: The Life and Times of Marjorie Merriweather Post. Villard Books. 1995, 2004.
Sinclair, Norman. Seminal Leader. DBusiness. September 12, 2013.
“ Why First Woman CEO in the United States Anna Sutherland Bissell was so Successful?” Womenlines. May 5, 2022.
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