American advertising executive. In 1956 she helped found Wells, Rich, Greene, Inc., a highly successful international ad agency. With a yearly salary of $350,000 she was classified as the highest paid woman executive in the U.S. in 1977, and was the first woman ever to float a business on the N.Y. stock exchange.
In her autobiography, “Mary Wells Lawrence: A Big Life in Advertising,” 2002, she relates the story of her incredible life in the New York advertising world in the ’50s and the bold campaign she designed for Braniff Airways. She later copped the top prize, marriage to the Braniff president Harding Lawrence. They made their headquarters on the Riviera, a handsome, dynamic jet-set couple.
When she first entered the ad world, Mary was the mother of two small daughters in a fading marriage. After landing the Braniff account in 1967, adding Pucci colors and models to the formerly drab airplanes, one afternoon she and Harding Lawrence looked at each other and knew where they were going. Their love affair, started in Dallas, went international and never let up; they married in Paris where they found an exquisite hideaway that they made their special own, La Florentina in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. From this headquarters they continued their work, building an international empire that was as glamorous and exciting as any movie. It was not without setbacks; Lawrence battled both uterine and breast cancer. After 34 years together, her husband, Harding, died of pancreatic cancer in January 2002.
Link to Wikipedia biography