Stewart, Martha (1941–)

Martha Stewart was a very popular and influential American celebrity in the late 1990s and early 2000s, a virtual media icon who ran afoul of the law and served prison time. Stewart was born on August 3, 1941, in Jersey City, New Jersey, and when she was 3 years old, her parents, Edward and Martha Kostyra, moved her and her five siblings to Nutley, New Jersey. Because of her legendarily strong work ethics and character, she received a partial scholarship to Barnard College in New York City. To pay the remainder of her tuition, she worked as a model for television commercials and magazines. At Barnard College, she met her husband Andrew Stewart, and they married during her sophomore year in 1961, just before she ...