Finding my Maybelline Roots in Morganfield Kentucky

My Great grandmother, 16 year old Susan Anna Alvey, in 1877.

My Great grandfather, Thomas Jefferson Willliams,  the local Sheriff and tax collector, was fearless when it came to doing the right thing.  He lost his right eye and often teased his grandchildren by pulling fake eye out and handing it to one of them. My dad remembered running away screaming.

Susan Anna Alvey Williams and TJ had 6 children. The most famous being Tom Lyle Williams, founder of the Maybelline Company. When Susan Anna, died in 1919, of the great flu, TJ turned his attention to keeping the books for Tom Llyle in the early years of Maybelline. 

On the farm as children, my grandfather William Preston Williams and his little sister Eva K. Williams in 1909. 

The 500 acre family farm and homestead was over 100 years old, by the time the Williams kids were born.  By 1916, the farm was sold and the family moved to Chicago, to assist Tom Lyle with the Maybelline Company.

TJ and Anna's third grandchild, and their son, Noel James and Frances Williams second child, Annette Williams, plays with the chickens before the farm was finally sold.

The country story wore many hats in the early day's, including being the local post office, photography studio, soda fountain, and supply store.  it also acted as a saloon at one time, before Prohibition  in 1920.

Noel James, wife Frances, with their two girls, Helen and Annette, in Morganfield, visiting the homestead.  The family was now prospering in Chicago, as the Maybelline Company continued to grow.

Little Helen, with the chickens in Morganfield.

                   Little Annette in the chicken coop.

Sheriff TJ with my father William Preston Williams Jr., in 1925.

And finally the Big Three, Sheriff Thomas Jefferson with his son, Tom Lyle Williams, and his first grandchild, Tom Lyle Williams Jr. in Chicago, 1934.

Read more about Morganfield and the early days of Maybelline in The Maybelline Story.

Do you watch the TV Show, "Finding your Roots?" http://www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots/ Anyone interested in their Genealogy, would learn a lot from the tremendous research done to produce every episode. Several of my cousins have researched our family history and even proved our connection with the great Patriot, Benjamin Franklin, and General Jonathon Williams, of the Revolutionary War. Here is a tiny glimpse into my roots in Kentucky. I'm proud to have those Southern ties in my background.

Noel James Williams was the Maybelline Company!

People have asked me about Tom Lyle's older brother Noel James Williams - not sure of how he fit in with the founding of the Maybelline Company.

Noel was the second son born to TJ and Susan Williams and he like the rest of the Williams kids had plans of his own that didn't include working a farm.  He fell in love with his childhood sweetheart Frances Allen and planned to earn the money to marry her while she was in her first year of college.  There was no way to earn money in Morganfield Kentucky so he moved to Chicago where he found employment with the railroads as a bookkeeper.

You'll have to read The Maybelline Story for the whole story but in a nutshell his younger brother Tom Lyle also joined him in Chicago, followed by sister Mabel and the three of them helped build Tom Lyle's budding mail order business.   If you've been following my blog you have an idea of the magnitude this major event meant to the Williams family and eventually the world.  However when Tom Lyle needed the money to launch Maybelline, he turned to his brother Noel who had saved $500 to marry Frances.  The rest is history, but to honor Noel for believing him him Tom Lyle made his older brother Vice President of the Maybelline Company, a position he held for the rest of his life. 

Tom Lyle paid  the $500 back one year later and on Nov 8th 1916 Noel and Frances were married.  Here is a picture of Noel and Frances soon after the wedding standing in front of Tom Lyle's convertible Page in Chicago's heavy snow. 

Noel and Frances moved into an apartment down the street from the Maybelline warehouse while the rest of the Williams family lived together in the apartment above it.  Noel and Tom Lyle were the driving force behind the little budding cosmetic company and together they made an unbeatable team.

 Here is the whole Williams Clan in Chicago after Noel and Frances first baby, Helen Frances was born May 31, 1918. 

Right to Left we see Proud Papa Noel looking at Frances in awe with his father TJ behind, holding baby Helen.  Next in the picture is Mabel, Preston in a Navel uniform,  Susan (their mother,) with her arm around Eva.  (not sure who the girl with the long curls is.) 

By 1935 Noel and Frances had four children.   In this picture we see left to right, Annette, Helen, Noel, Dick, Frances and Noel Allen.  Family came first for Noel Williams followed by Maybelline, in fact it was hard to separate the two because Maybelline was  family and family was  Maybelline.   Noel represented stability, responsibility and propriety to the the highest level.  With him at the helm of Maybelline's ship Tom Lyle concentrated on what he did best Advertising and since he spent most of his time at the Villa Valentino in the Hollywood Hills, he depended on Noel's ability to run a tight ship at the Maybelline Company in Chicago.

After 30 years living in a brownstone not far from the Maybelline Company in Chicago, Noel and his family moved to the suburbs into a large custom home fit for an executive.  He was 55 years old and the little company he believed in and supported with his wedding money proved to be one of America's biggest success stories - and still is today after almost 100 years.  In this picture left to right, we see Ches Haines, Eva's husband head of transportation for the company, (not sure who second man is,) than Noel's youngest son Dick, his son Noel Allen, Noel, and Rags Ragland the marketing genius Tom Lyle hired in 1933 and the only person outside the family to work for the Maybelline company.

Noel and Frances' son Noel Allen's wedding Feb 12, 1949. Left to right, mother of the bride Alberta Kilroy, Noel and Frances, Father of the bride, Charles Thomas Kilroy, Jean (Kilroy) Williams, Noel Allen and Jean's girlfriends as maid of honor and bridesmaids. On November 23, 1949, Charles Allen Williams, (Chuck,) was born while Noel Allen and Jean were living in one of the apartments in the  Maybelline building.

This picture of Noel outside the Maybelline Building at 900 Ridge and Clark in Chicago shows a man meticulous in every way.  He's such a stunning example of the quintessential executive with his overcoat, hat and briefcase under his are, that the man walking down the street had to do a double take.  Noel never took a day off from work in the 36 years he ran the Maybelline Company. It was only after a heart attack shortly after his sons wedding, that Tom Lyle insisted he take time off and visit him at his new estate in Bel Air California.  

Here is one of the last pictures of Noel and Frances - at Tom Lyle's ultra modern stone and glass estate in Bel Air -before Noels death the following year in 1951.

Tom Lyle Williams with his older brother Noel, founded the Maybelline Company, and at Noel's death it was said the Noel was the Maybelline Company.  We sure know that without him there certainly wouldn't have been a Maybelline Company. 

Tom Lyle had a great idea, given to him by his sister Mabel, but without the capitol to launch it, and the devotion to run it, Maybelline might have remained just a good Idea.

Read more about Noel and the building of an empire in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Behind It.

Mabel Williams will forever be MAYBELLINE!

Here is a picture bio of Mabel Williams the inspiration for the Maybelline Company.

Why did Mabel mix that burnt cork with the Vaseline? 

I grew up hearing the story from my grandmother and father. They said she had very pale brows and lashes and wanted to darken them, so concocted a mixture of ash and Vaseline to make them appear darker.  Another story came from Mabel's sister Eva, who said she accidentally singed her lashes and brows while cooking over the stove.  Yet another story floated around the family saying Mabel had some kind of disease that made her brows and lashes fall out.  I chose the singed brows and lashes version for my book, The Maybelline Story, only to be corrected after the book came out by Mabel's two daughters, Shirley and Joyce.  They say their mother accidentally bleached her brows.  "Using what I thought - I can't imagine - Peroxide? - Why!"  But no matter why it happened really doesn't matter, what matters is  -  she mixed the ash from a burnt cork with Vaseline and the result was a product that has stood the test of time for nearly 100 years - Maybelline. 

I love this picture of Mabel - standing behind her mother Susan seated and her sister Eva sitting on the ground (with a giant bow in her hair.)

22 year old Mabel was her mothers right hand and devoted in every way to her family and as you can see in this picture taken in 1914, before Maybelline was even a twinkle in her brother Tom Lyle's eye. Mabel favored her mother in appearance and was actually quite beautiful, considering the time, living on a farm and having sew her own clothes.  Mabel was always fashionable, smart, elegant and had that sweet Southern Bell way about her.  She was an old fashioned girl at heart and only wanted one thing - a devoted husband and a family of her own.  But for now fate had other plans in store and marriage wasn't going to happen for another twelve years.

By 1917 the Williams family had moved off the farm and into an apartment above the  Maybelline warehouse where they helped Tom Lyle with his little mail order business called Maybelline. 

In this picture Tom Lyle had just bought his first car, called a "Page, The Most Beautiful Car in America," and parked it in front of the Maybelline warehouse.  He is at the wheel with Mabel and TJ their father in the back seat. 

Here is a picture of Mabel with her brother Noel sitting on the running board of Noel's new automobile. Mabel was now 25, living in Chicago and the namesake for the Maybelline company. She loved beautiful clothes and hats and became a woman of impeccable style and glamour.  

She - like the rest of the Williams family - worked for Tom Lyle, loved silent films, Photoplay magazine and kept up with the fashion of the day. OH! and of course wore Maybelline on her lashes and brows.

Still true love escaped her, but she like her brother Tom Lyle, she was determined to make her dream come true and find the perfect mate.

In 1919 Susan Williams, Mabel's mother died of the "Great Flu" and once again Mabel stepped in to fill the role of matriarch.  She cared for her father until his death in 1935 and was ever devoted to Tom Lyle, Maybelline and her entire tribe as she called them.

 Now at 27 she questioned her dream of finding true love and  worried she might be a caretaker or worse have to join the convent. 

 By 1924 her little sister Eva was married to Ches Haines, My grandfather Preston married my grandmother Evelyn and had my father Bill, Noel married Frances and had two daughters but Mabel continued to care for her father and help Tom Lyle with the Maybelline Company.

Finally one day in church Mabel met Chet Hewes and on her 34th Birthday she and Chet were married!  Sweet Mabel knew she'd found her one true love and soon they had three beautiful Children and lived a quiet life for nearly 50 wonderful years.  Mabel remained devoted to her brothers and and sisters, their children and grandchildren through out her long life and was for ever called Auntie Mabel by all who loved and adored her.

Here is a picture of Auntie Mabel with her sister Eva's husband Ches, isn't she glamouus after almost ten years after she and Chet married. Uncle Chet worked for the Maybelline Company until the day Tom Lyle sold it in 1968 and ran the the department that manufactured Maybelline mascara.  Mabel and Chet remained a humble, understated family-oriented couple for the rest of their lives and though they suffered terrible losses never gave up their faith in God.   The little idea Mabel had for darkening her lashes and brows is still the largest cosmetic company in the world and represents the quality, purity and beauty that Mabel herself stood for.

Here is the last picture I have of auntie Mabel and uncle Chet taken in August 1973 at my great uncle Tom Lyle's home in Bel Air California.  She was 81 and passed away the next year.  Losing auntie Mable was the end of an era and broke everyone's heart. 

There will never be a lady quite like Mabel - and her beautiful Maybelline eyes will remain in our hearts forever.  She inspired a product that changed the face of women everywhere and is still working it's magic today.

Mabel will forever be MAYBELLINE!