In 1950s America, Rose Marie Reid was a household name. She was born one hundred years ago today.<\/p>\n
She invented the modern bathing suit. She married three times, each more disastrous than the last. She wrote a series of missionary discussions aimed at Jews that was used church-wide. Two of her grandchildren drowned in her swimming pool. She owned the company that sold more bathing suits in the 1950s than any other. She was poverty-stricken in her later years as her fortune was squandered by financial advisors whom she trusted too much. She donated a significant sum to the construction of the Los Angeles Temple; the Relief Society sisters in the area hand-sewed thousands of sequins onto a bathing suit design that was so popular in 1954 that one would-be beauty queen stole it off of a mannequin. She was responsible for a good portion of the shape and form of BYU today. Her children lived for a few years in another country while she worked around the clock to establish her business. She was thanked by Marilyn Monroe as a major source of her success. She redesigned the temple garment at President McKay’s request. She allowed her twelve-year-old daughter to go on vacation to New York City, alone, for a month. She refused to design immodest bathing suits. She was an official, set-apart missionary for two decades, serving the church by sharing the gospel with everyone she met while running her stunningly successful business.<\/p>\n
She, in short, lived an amazing life and may still be the most famous LDS woman ever.<\/p>\n
Happy Birthday, Sister Reid.<\/p>\n