Martha Stewart Biography
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Martha Stewart was born with the given
name Martha Kostyra on August 3, 1941, in Jersey City, New Jersey to
Martha and Edward Kostyra. When she was three, they moved to Nutley,
New Jersey, where she was raised. She has four brothers and one
sister. Since she grew up in a large close-knit family, food and
housework was always at its heart and at an early age she learned
how to cook, sew and do gardening from her mother. She even had
neighbors who were bakers and also taught her as well.
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She attended and graduated Barnard
College (on a partial scholarship) in New York City. She majored in
chemistry (then switched to European History and Architectural
history). She did some modeling to help pay the bills. She also
found love in college and married Andrew Stewart during her
sophomore year.
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Martha continued modeling until 1965,
when her daughter, Alexis Gilbert Stewart, was born (9/27/65). In
1967 she went to Wall Street and began working as a stockbroker with
her father-in-law while her attorney husband went into the
publishing business. When the market slowed down in 1973, she left
Wall Street and moved with her husband to Westport, Connecticut.
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Feeling restless, she started her own
catering business in 1976. The business was a huge financial
success, and she even opened up a specialty foods store in
Westport. With this success behind her, she began writing articles
for the New York Times, and eventually became the editor for
their house and home section called House Beautiful. This
then led to publishing illustrated books on home restoration,
decorating, food and entertaining. This eventually led to video
tapes and appearances on television.
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Martha and Andrew were divorced in
1990.
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In 1990, she began to appear on the
Today Show as a regular correspondent (and stayed on until
1997). However, in 1991, she began to syndicate her own television
show that made her famous, Martha Stewart’s Living. Even
during the success of that show she was also a correspondent for CBS
This Morning from 1997-1999 and then The Early Show from 1999
through 2002.
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She hosted Martha Stewart’s
Living until 2004, and during the life of the show she was
awarded the Daytime Emmy For Outstanding Service Show in 2001, 2003
and 2004 (and was nominated in 2002). She also won the Daytime Emmy
Award for Outstanding Service Host in 2003 and 2003 (and was
nominated in 1999-2001 and 2004).
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Besides the hit daytime television
show, she was involved in all aspects of the business world from
television and movies to publishing her own magazine and a line of
retail products. She created a multi-million dollar empire called
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc.
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While she was on top of the world, the
unthinkable happened. In 2003 the SEC accused her of insider
trading of stocks. She was then indicted in early 2004 of this
felony. In March of 2004, a jury held her guilty of lying and
obstructing the investigation (four felony charges). She began
serving her jail sentence in October, and is slated to be released
in March of 2005. [Trivia: Her prison number is: 55170-054]
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Even in prison, she has been working on
her career and will host a new version of
Donald Trump’s
Apprentice. She is a remarkable woman and will probably re-grow
her empire to even greater heights. The show was cancelled
after its first season.
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Martha is free! She is out of prison
and already hard at work.
Biography by Ian Ripley,
PopStarsPlus.com, Sr. Staff Writer
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