Making Tom Lyle Proud...I hope!

Sharrie Williams with her great uncle Tom Lyle Williams and her sister Donna Williams, 1972.

When I was 18 and graduated from High School, I went up to my Uncle’s home in Bel Air to ask him if I could have a career as a Maybelline Model. He said, “Go to college, and when you complete a degree in marketing, I will open every door for you.”

Well, he sold the company two years later, and I never had the chance work for him, but in our conversation I told him I wanted to write a book about him and the Maybelline Company someday. He thought for a few seconds, than said “I really don’t wan't anything written about me.” I looked disappointed, not understanding why he wanted to be forgotten.

Then he looked at me with his twinkling eyes, and said, “If you ever tell my story, I don’t want to be remembered as the man who invented mascara, I want to be remembered as the KING OF ADVERTISING!”

I hope he would be proud of the way I have portrayed him for posterity as the undisputed king of advertising, and a true pioneer in the cosmetics business.